Asia Cup 2022: India knocked out after Pakistan beat Afghanistan

India were on Wednesday knocked out of contention for the Asia Cup final after Pakistan beat Afghanistan by one wicket in a tense Super 4 match in Sharjah. Winless in two matches, both India and Afghanistan are out of the tournament and Thursday’s match between the two sides here has been rendered inconsequential.

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With four points each from two wins apiece, Pakistan and Sri Lanka sealed their places in the summit clash to be played on Sunday.

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After convincing wins over arch-rivals Pakistan and Hong Kong in the group matches, India looked clueless in the Super 4 stage. They lost to Pakistan by five wickets and then slumped to a six-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka in a close match.

Despite the losses, India still had a mathematical chance to qualify for Sunday’s final if Afghanistan had beaten Pakistan on Wednesday. Besides, India were also required to beat Afghanistan by a big margin on Thursday and for Sri Lanka to do a favour by beating Pakistan on Friday.

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India’s fate had slipped out of their hands after the defeat against Sri Lanka and any faint hopes remaining were snuffed out with Pakistan snatching victory against Afghanistan in the final over in a Super 4 match that could have gone either way.

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Brief scores: Afghanistan: 129 for 6 in 20 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 35; Haris Rauf 2/26).

Pakistan: 131 for 9 in 19.2 overs (Shadab Khan 36, Iftikhar Ahmed 30; Fazalhaq Farooqi 3/31, Fareed Ahmad 3/31, Rashid Khan 2/25).