Virat Kohli praises Hardik Pandya for his match-winning performance vs Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022, post goes viral

Two arch-nemesis and Asian giants India and Pakistan locked horns with each other in the first match of their campaign in the Asia Cup 2022. It was the first time when these two teams faced each other in any major international tournament since their last clash in the T20 World Cup 2021. In that match, Pakistan won the match by a massive margin of 10 wickets.

Although, India took revenge and finally won their first match against Pakistan in the Asia Cup by five wickets. Pakistan managed to post a total of 147 runs for the loss of all wickets in the 19.5 overs. India chased it down in 19.4 overs with the batting heroics of star all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya.

Hardik Pandya delivered a magnificent all-round performance by first scalping three wickets of Pakistan. Later on, he played a match-defining knock of 33 runs off just 17 balls with four boundaries and a six to his name.

Former skipper and senior batter Virat Kohli also reacted to the match-winning performance of Hardik Pandya. He posted an Instagram story for Hardik Pandya and wrote “Champion” with a photo of Hardik after he finished the match. Kohli also mentioned the star all-rounder in his story.

Here’s the Instagram story of Virat Kohli for Hardik Pandya:

Fans witnessed a nail-biting thriller between India and Pakistan

Talking about the match furthermore, Mohammad Rizwan played a knock of 43 runs off 42 balls with four boundaries and a six. Iftikhar Ahmed also contributed with his knock of 28 runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped the highest number of wickets for India as he claimed four batters of Pakistan to his name. Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded only 26 runs in his quota of four overs.

While chasing the target of 148 runs, India faced an early blow when young Pakistani pacer Naseem Shah scalped the wicket of senior batter KL Rahul only on the second ball of the inning. But after that, skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli sojourned there in the middle and made a partnership of 49 runs for the second wicket.

Virat Kohli played a knock of 35 runs off 34 balls with three boundaries and a six. Finally, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya snatched the match from Pakistan with their excellent batting and helped India to register a win by five wickets.