The crunch Asia Cup 2023 Super Fours clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan finally began on the reserve day after a delay of 100 minutes on Monday, September 11 in Colombo. The pair of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul began watchfully from where India were on the overnight score of 147.
Rahul got more of the strike in the first few overs and took some balls to get used to the pace of the surface after a lot of rain. Kohli, on the other hand, was his usual busy self before one of Naseem Shah seemed to have clipped his bat, which was the final delivery of the 28th over of the Indian innings.
Pakistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan was excited from the start, which is his normal self. Skipper Babar Azam at mid-off came running towards the bowler suggesting that he too heard something and went for the review. However, it wasn't to be as the replays showed that the ball hit Kohli on the side of his thigh. Kohli had a wry smile on his face as he said something to Babar in jest.
Rizwan's over-excitement was the reason for Pakistan losing their first review as well and Babar gave in to the temptation given it was the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma but there was daylight between the bat and the ball. As Pakistan lost both their reviews in less than 30 overs, memes galore on social media suggesting that Babar will be after Rizwan for egging him on to go for DRS.
Here are some of the reactions:
After the 121-run opening stand, both Rohit and Shubman Gill got out in quick succession forcing Virat Kohli and KL Rahul to rebuild. The rescue job went on till the 30th over before both opened up and smashed their respective fifties as the Men in Blue are eyeing a massive 320-plus total.
