Asia Cup 2025 | Tilak Varma does star turn as India are crowned champions for the ninth time

Tilak mastermind the chase, stitching key alliances with Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube as India consigned Pakistan to a third straight defeat in this competition.

Dubai: Under immense pressure, Tilak Varma produced inarguably the most important knock of his life, muscling India to a five-wicket victory and extending their lease over the Asia Cup for the ninth time at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday night.

India made a terrible hash of what ought to have been a regulation chase of 147 after triggering a sensational Pakistan collapse that saw the last nine wickets fall for just 33 runs in 39 deliveries. From 113 for one, Pakistan crumbled to 146 when they looked good for at least 40 more, but through Shaheen Shah Afridi and Faheem Ashraf and a host of slower deliveries, they had India reeling at 20 for three after four overs.

With the in-form Abhishek Sharma, as well as Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav back in the hut, India needed someone to put his hand up and complement the brilliance of Kuldeep Yadav’ whose four for 30 had brought India back into a contest that seemed to be running away from them. Tilak took it upon himself to mastermind the chase, stitching together important alliances with Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube, who followed up a tidy spell with the new ball with an impetus-lending knock as the required rate mounted.

India did not panic, waiting for their moments with Tilak exemplifying their composure. Pakistan believed they were in with a chance all the way through but Tilak baulked them with intelligence and enterprise.

When the occasion and the ball so demanded, he unfurled the big strokes but he did not take any risks during successive partnerships of 57 and 60 with Samson and Dube respectively.

Missing Hardik Pandya through injury, India chose to bulk up their batting and Rinku Singh, playing his first competitive game for four months, applied the finishing touches with two deliveries to spare, carting Haris Rauf over mid-on for the winning boundary that sent a nation into raptures and consigned Pakistan to a third successive defeat to their fiercest rivals in this competition.

Tilak was unbeaten in the end with 69, worth its weight in gold, given all the acrimony and drama in the lead-up to the India vs Pakistan final, which itself thankfully passed without incident.

The Pakistan nosedive came without warning. When Sabhizada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman were in the middle and taking the fight to them, India seemed bereft of ideas and running on empty. After a cursory period of figuring out how the surface was holding up, the right-hander Farhan got stuck into Jasprit Bumrah, carting him for boundaries with the same impunity as in the previous games.

Farhan became the first batter in all T20s to hit Bumrah for three sixes in all, and as he brought up his fifty and the score started to mount, India needed a moment of inspiration. That was provided by Varun Chakravarthy, who finally forced Farhan into a mistake with a pull that was snaffled at deep mid-wicket.

Even then, there was no indication of the drama to follow, until Saim Ayub picked out point while trying to cut Kuldeep. The left-arm wrist-spinner, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, began uncertainly but brought all his guile into play as the innings went deep and Pakistan courted disaster with one poor stroke after another.

Despite missing Pandya, India were well served by their spinners while Bumrah came late to the party. Axar Patel was tidy with his left-arm spin, but it was Kuldeep who spun the most wicked web; he picked up three wickets in his final over which went for only just one run as Pakistan, who looked well on course for a total in the vicinity of 185, fell well short.