Asia Cup 2025 Wrap: After Eventful India vs Pakistan Final, It's Time For A Reality Check
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Karan Pradhan breaks down India’s ninth Asia Cup crown, Pakistan’s collapse, and the key talking points from a tournament of hype, experimentation and uneven cricket. |
A FIVE-WICKET WIN in what was the first-ever India-Pakistan Asia Cup final handed Suryakumar Yadav’s team their ninth title overall and second in the T20 format. Following a blazing start by their openers, Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman, Pakistan lost nine wickets for a mere 33 runs. Having shambled their way to 146 all out, the rest of the proceedings seemed like a mere formality, but Salman Agha’s side had a trick or two up their sleeve. Here’s a quick look at five major talking points from the 17th edition of the Asia Cup:
The final For a while, Farhan’s 57 and Zaman’s 46 threatened to turn into Pakistan’s best batting effort of the tournament. Their previous best had been 171/5 in the Super 4s match against India, and then too, Farhan had been responsible for laying the foundation with a brisk half-century. Unfortunately for Pakistan, this time, no batter from No 4 onwards could even breach the double-figure mark. And this had as much to do with the effectiveness of spinners Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav as the impatience of the batters. The agricultural heave that led to Hussain Talat’s downfall is a case in point.
Missed the match everyone's talking about? Catch the replay! Chasing a target of 147, India’s explosive opener Abhishek Sharma wandered down the track and swished at the first ball. He’d become somewhat accustomed to starting things off with a big hit and probably imagined that was going to be par for the course. Twenty-three balls later, Sharma, Shubman Gill and skipper Suryakumar were back in the pavilion with only 20 on the board. For the first time in a long time, Pakistan seemed in control of a match against India. But it would not last. Aided by sloppy fielding and an inexplicable insistence on handing the profligate Haris Rauf the slog overs, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube steered India to an ultimately comfortable win. The small consolation for Agha and his men was that it was the first time all Asia Cup that they were actually competitive against this opposition. Continue Reading... |
Premier League Week 6: Arsenal Make Title Statement, Liverpool Stumble, Amorim On The Brink
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Ruben Amorim fell further down the well of despair in a weekend where Liverpool’s loss and Arsenal’s comeback win at Newcastle reignited the title race.
Manik Sharma reports. |
Chelsea continue to shoot themselves in the foot
FOR ALL THEIR ATTACKING TALENT and a squad the size of a small country, Chelsea’s defensive mistakes have now turned winnable games into abominable losses. Against United last week, a mindless lunge by their keeper, Robert Sanchez, reduced the team to ten men at the 5-minute mark of a game that was begging to be won. This time around, against a measured Brighton, Trevor Chalobah, you could argue, committed a greater sin — picking up an unnecessary red card while his team were comfortably leading a tight contest at home. Allowing the attacker to score, for the second week running, would have been the right call. Chelsea aren’t exactly punishing opposition defences at the moment, which is probably pushing their defenders into making panicked do-or-die decisions. The high of winning the Club World Cup has already washed off with new-season optimism, an injury to Cole Palmer and defensive woes dampening the mood at Stamford Bridge. Things could get worse as their next opponents are league leaders and recently wounded Liverpool.
Premier League matches come to you live and exclusive on JioHotstar, with an OTTplay subscription for only Rs 149 per month. Don’t miss a minute! City’s defensive fragility could become their undoing
For a game in which Manchester City scored five goals — two of them own goals — and Erling Haaland secured a brace, it's damning to contend with the fact that for at least an hour of this match, lowly Burnley tore apart City’s shockingly brittle back line. That this isn’t City’s best defensive line, nor is it Pep Guardiola’s controlling machine of old, is well established, but it was humbling to see Burnley create chance after chance at the City ground. That one-sided scoreline merely smudges the subtext to what feels on paper like a thrashing. City’s striker is on fire, but the team’s midfield can no longer dictate games the way it used to. To add to that midfield misery, their back line will give just about everyone in the league an opportunity. The purchase of an un-Guardiola-like Donnarumma in goal makes all the more sense since the manager, one would presume, has pre-empted the emergence of these cracks. Continue Reading... |
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