10 wickets and 13 balls to spare: Twitter erupts with celebrations as Pakistan thrash India

Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi starred as Pakistan thumped India by 10 wickets to register their first-ever T20 World Cup win over India on Sunday.

The victory not only ensures a winning start to their World Cup campaign but also ends a 29-year wait that saw Pakistan lose 12 World Cup encounters to India across the 50- and 20-over formats.

It also gives them much-needed confidence ahead of another tense encounter against New Zealand in Sharjah on October 26.

As Pakistanis celebrated, improving their head-to-head record against India, Twitter erupted with messages as soon as Babar scored the final runs, with former cricketers heaping praises for the Green Shirts.

Congratulating Pakistan over the historic victory, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he was proud of the entire unit, especially Babar Azam who led the side with full confidence.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Bajwa also congratulated the team for the outstanding performance and comprehensive win against India.

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ramiz Raja was delighted after the win but cautioned the team not to be complacent as the journey has just begun.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-president Maryam Nawaz said it all in a two-word tweet.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also congratulated the team.

Hero at the 2009 T20 World Cup and former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was the first to congratulate the Pakistan cricket team.

Former fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar took to Twitter to look for ex-Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who had been quite vocal about the big game.

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram said that Pakistan ended the jinx by finally winning against India in World Cups. Akram himself featured in 3 of those 12 losing encounters (1992, 1999, and 2003).

Test opener Azhar Ali also congratulated the team and praised the “clinical run chase by our openers.”

Pop-star Akcent also congratulated Pakistan for the great win.

Match report

Chasing 152 for victory, Babar (68) and Rizwan (79) took apart the Indian bowling as they steered their team home with 13 balls to spare in Dubai.

Left-arm quick Shaheen Shah Afridi set up victory with figures of 3-31 that kept down India to 151-7 despite a valiant 57 from skipper Virat Kohli.

Babar and Riwan went on the attack from the start with boundaries inside the powerplay - the first six overs when only two fielders are allowed outside the inner circle - to set the tone for their chase.

The batting pair kept up the charge as Babar reached his fifty with a six off spinner Varun Chakravarthy to get the Pakistan crowd dancing with joy.

Rizwan raised his fifty with a boundary off pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah and then raced past his captain, hitting six fours and three sixes in his 55-ball knock.

Babar hit the winning runs to turn a new page in Pakistan-India rivalry.

Earlier, Afridi returned figures of 3-31 after a lethal first spell to hurt India in the Super 12s encounter watched by 20,000 in the stadium and a global TV audience of hundreds of millions of fans across the globe.

Kohli scored his 29th T20 fifty to help the team rebuild before being caught behind off Afridi as Pakistan dismissed the star batsman for the first time in a T20 World Cup game.

Afridi struck the first blow with an express delivery that swung in to trap Rohit Sharma lbw for a first-ball duck and the bowler celebrated with his trademark open-arm gesture.

Kohli walked in amid raucous applause from the Indian fans who were soon silenced by another ripper from Afridi in his second over.

The 1.98-metre bowler got KL Rahul with a delivery that came in sharply to take the batsman's thigh pad and rattle the stumps.

Kohli and new batter, Suryakumar Yadav, attempted to hit back with some positive shots as they smashed Afridi for a six each.

Wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan then pulled off a superb diving catch to cut short Yadav's stay at the wicket with quick bowler Hasan Ali striking in his first over. Yadav made 11.

Rishabh Pant joined Kohli in the middle and the left-right batting pair rebuilt the innings and took India to 60-3 at the end of 10 overs.

Pant, a wicketkeeper-batsman who survived a close caught behind call off one of his attempted reverse sweeps, kept up the charge with adventurous strokeplay.

He hit Ali for two successive sixes but finally fell to Shadab Khan's leg-spin in the next over, top-edging a ball that went high and into the hands of the bowler.

Pant made 39 off 30 balls. Kohli stood firm to soak up the pressure to get to his 50 in 45 balls.