T20 World Cup 2021

The victory sends Pakistan back above Afghanistan to the top of Group 2 with two wins from two matches in the tournament. A sensational bowling performance by Haris Rauf, (4/22) helped Pakistan restrict New Zealand to 134/8 in 20 overs. Apart from Rauf, fellow pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi, Imad Wasim, and Hafeez picked up a wicket each on the sluggish pitch at Sharjah.

Haris Rauf's superb bowling followed by Asif Ali and Shoaib Malik's late blitz helped Pakistan beat New Zealand by five wickets in a Super 12 match of the Men's T20 World Cup 2021 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. The victory sends Pakistan back above Afghanistan to the top of Group 2 with two wins from two matches in the tournament. Babar also praised Malik and Asif Ali for their match-winning partnership.

Following the dismissal of openers KL Rahul (3) and Rohit Sharma (0) early in Powerplays, the India skipper played with a "great sense of responsibility", scoring 57 off 49 deliveries to at least give his side a fighting total of 151/7. However, Pakistan, riding on a superb bowling performance from paceman Shaheen Afridi (3/31) and an unbeaten opening partnership of 152 runs between Mohammad Rizwan (79 not out) and Babar Azam (68 not out), scored a 10-wicket win over India.

Time and again, New Zealand have proved that they are one of the toughest opponents for India in the ICC tournaments with the latest being the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June. India have outclassed every challenging opposition team at the ICC events in the last one decade or so, but they have failed to solve the mystery of Black Caps.

The animosity created by the Black Caps' last-minute cancellation of the limited-overs series in Pakistan in September has been too hard to digest for Babar Azam's players, and even the new Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja, besides several former cricketers, including Shoaib Akhtar among others, have asked the team to go all out and take "revenge".

While defending champions West Indies were hammered by England in what was perhaps the worst show by the Kieron Pollard-led side in T20 World Cups, getting bundled out for just 55 runs, Australia, riding on the heroics of Marcus Stoinis, defeated the Proteas with just two balls remaining. Having both endured opening-match losses at the tournament, the two sides meet in Dubai later on Tuesday, with the loser staring down the prospects of falling too far behind in the semifinal race.

After scoring an imposing 190/4 in 20 overs, Mujeeb, along with Rashid Khan (4/9), spun a web around Scotland's batters, from which there was no escaping as they were bundled out for 60 in the 11th over. The mammoth win in the opening match of the tournament is also Afghanistan's biggest win in T20Is in terms of run margin. Chasing a mammoth target, Scotland's George Munsey began by taking three boundaries in the first nine balls of the innings. Kyle Coetzer joined the act with two boundaries against Naveen-ul-Haq in the third over.

"Coming to this press conference, I kind of knew that people were going to ask or that you guys were going to ask a lot about the batting. We also see it as a concern. The last thing we need to do is keep bickering on and on about it. That's just how cricket goe"," said Rabada in the pre-match press conference on Monday.

Their bowling was even more pedestrian as Pakistan chased down the score in 17.5 overs to seal and memorable victory. There were several distinct moments and signs that suggested rather a lethargic tone of the Indian side during the clash. Here are 5 major reasons why India lost to Pakistan.

"As a team, we need to understand that what was the reality of the situation out there in the middle. That's where those 20-25 extra runs would have been good. But brilliant bowling in the first six, did not allow us to get those extra runs. We know exactly how the game went and where it went wrong. We have absolute clarity of it, which is a good thing to know about where you went wrong as a team," said Kohli in the post-match press conference on Sunday.