By Admin 
Due to the all-round play of Maaz Sadaqat, Pakistan Shaheens (A team) defeated India A by eight wickets with 40 balls remaining in the Group B match of the Rising Stars Asia Cup T20 here on Sunday. After bowling out India A for 136 runs in 19 overs, Pakistan Shaheens easily achieved the target for two wickets in just 13.2 overs.
‘Player of the Match’ Sadaqat played an unbeaten inning of 79 runs with the help of seven fours and four sixes in 47 balls and took two wickets for 12 runs in three overs. Suyyash Sharma and Yash Thakur took one wicket each for India.
Earlier, despite a brilliant inning of 45 runs in 28 balls by opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi, India A team was out for 136 runs.
Suryavanshi hit five fours and three sixes in his innings. After making a partnership of 30 runs in 20 balls for the first wicket with Priyansh Arya (10), he gave a fast start to the team by adding 49 runs in 32 balls with Naman Dhir (35) for the second wicket, but after his dismissal on the fourth ball of the 10th over, the team’s innings faltered.
Naman hit one six and six fours in his 20-ball innings. When Suryavanshi was out, the team’s score was 91 runs for three wickets. After his wicket, captain Jitesh Sharma (five), Nehal Wadhera (eight), Ashutosh Sharma (zero) and Ramandeep Singh (11) could not contribute anything with the bat.
Harsh Dubey took the team to the score of 136 runs with his innings of 19 runs in 15 balls. For Pakistan Shaheens, Shahid Ijaz took three wickets while Saad Masood and Sadaqat took two wickets each. Ubaid Shah, Ahmed Daniyal and Sufiyan Muqeem got one success each.
Players of both the teams avoided shaking hands before the start of the match and ignored each other after the national anthem. This continued the trend started by the senior team during the Asia Cup in September.
India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav did not shake hands with Pakistan captain Salman Ali Aga during the Asia Cup in September to show solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.
Jitesh Sharma, who was the second wicketkeeper in that tournament and captain of India ‘A’ in the current competition, followed the footsteps of his senior player and did not shake hands with Pakistan Shaheens captain Irfan Khan at the time of toss.
While chasing the target, Pakistan Shaheens started chasing the target in an aggressive manner. Mohammad Nayeem (14) hit a six against Thakur in the second over, while Sadaqat hit two consecutive fours against Suyyash who came to bowl in the fourth over, putting pressure on India A by hitting a four and a six on consecutive balls of Gurjapneet Singh.
Thakur, who conceded 14 runs in his opening over, gave India its first success by dismissing Nayeem in the sixth over.
Sadaqat completed his half-century in 31 balls with aggressive batting from the other end.
In the tenth over, Nehal took the catch of Sadaqat near the boundary on the ball of Suyyash Sharma and threw the ball towards Naman who completed the catch. However, the third umpire declared it not out after watching the replays several times. After which the Indian players talked to the on-field umpire for a long time.
Suyyash dismissed Yasir Khan (11) in the same over but with two runs on the last ball of the over, Pakistan Shaheens completed 100 runs in 10 overs.
Mohammad Faiq (16 not out) gave victory to Pakistan with a six off Naman Dheer.
On being invited to bat first, Suryavanshi welcomed Ubaid with a four and started his innings from where he had left in the previous match. This brilliant batsman, who scored 144 runs in 42 balls against UAE, showed his attitude by hitting fours and sixes on consecutive balls in the second over against Shahid.
However, Shahid gave the first success to Pakistan Shaheens by playing Priyansh from the other end.
Naman Dhir maintained the run pace with fours against Ubaid and Daniyal, due to which the team scored 50 runs for one wicket in the powerplay.
After welcoming Muqeem with a four in the eighth over, Naman ended the over with a six but Masood broke this dangerous partnership by dismissing Naman.
Suryavanshi hit fours and sixes on consecutive balls against Mukeem, but in the same over, Faik took a brilliant catch near the boundary. India lost the wickets of Jitesh, Ashutosh and Vadhera within four runs between 13th and 15th over.
Ramandeep hit a six against Sadaqat but Ubaid’s ball was caught by the wicketkeeper after waving it in the air. Harsh took the team’s score to 136 runs with fours in the 18th and 19th overs but Shahid ended India’s innings by taking two wickets in three balls.