Dubai,sep 29
Following India’s Asia Cup title win over arch-rivals Pakistan, Men in Blue’s match-winners Tilak Varma, who played an unbeaten 69* run knock and all-rounder Shivam Dube who contributed a vital 33-run cameo, spoke on how they replied to Pakistan’s provocative antics and talks with their bat and did not give them a chance to speak.The India-Pakistan rivalry, despite its largely one-sided track record leaning towards India in recent years, continues to give excitement as it took a patient, well-calculated 69* from Tilak and half-century partnerships with Sanju Samson and Dube to drag India out of troubled waters from 20/3 to a successful run-chase of 147 runs after spin magic of Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel made Pakistan collapse from 113/1 to 146 all out.The India-Pakistan matches throughout the tournament saw a lot of aggression from both sides, with a major highlight coming in the finals when Jasprit Bumrah performed an ‘airplane crash’ celebration after taking wicket of Haris Rauf, who had just days back, used his fingers to point out ‘6-0’ to the crowd, referencing to Pakistan’s groundless claims of downing six Indian airplanes during Operation Sindoor in May launched by Indian Armed Forces in response to Pahalgam Terror attacks in April.Speaking in a video by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Shivam lauded Tilak for the way he built his innings and asked Tilak on his mindset when he walked in to bat.Tilak said, “When I went in to bat, I was under a lot of pressure. I was looking to play in the gaps. It was in my mind the longer I stay, the better because opposition is always under pressure when we bat, then he (Dube and Sanju) made my work easier.”Further adding to how he responded to Pakistan’s aggressive gestures and antics, Tilak said, “They were speaking a lot since the start, they saw my reply with the bat, they are not visible on the ground.”
