Pakistan captain **Salman Ali Aga** won the toss and decided to field first, citing his strong spin department. Despite the early dismissal of Abhishek Sharma, India scored 175/7 with the help of **Ishan Kishan**’s explosive innings of 77 runs off 40 balls (with support from Tilak Verma and others). Pakistan was all out for 114 runs in 18 overs, in which contributions like Usman Khan’s 44 runs were not enough in front of India’s bowlers (Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy took wickets). With this, India’s dominance over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup became 8-1.
Former Pakistan batsman **Basit Ali** lashed out on YouTube show *The Game Plan* (with Kamran Akmal), and called the toss decision stupid. He noted that the previous three matches at that venue (including Zimbabwe’s upset win over Australia on the same pitch) had been won by the teams batting first. Having already apologized for his sharp words, he called the team “illiterate” and “ignorant”, and questioned why they bowled first despite the strength of the spin: “Bowl later, na ulu… Who said bowl first?” (Use your strength later, idiot… who told you to bowl first?).
Head coach **Mike Hesson** defended the strategy but acknowledged poor execution, particularly when the spinners faltered in the face of Kishan’s attack. Captain Agha acknowledged the team’s poor start in batting and overall poor execution.
Pakistan’s tournament is still alive: with wins over the Netherlands and the USA, they need a win (or a match washout) against Namibia in their last group game to advance to the Super 8s. They will be out of action due to the upset of Namibia as they have a lower Net Run Rate (NRR) compared to USA.
Basit Ali’s anger reflects frustration among the older players over tactical mistakes and the gap with top-ranked India.
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