Asian Games 2026: India Beat Pakistan By 19 Runs To Clinch Gold Medal

Nisshin: Abhishek Sharma was the familiar nemesis upfront while Tilak Varma became a tormentor towards the end as India lived up to its top billing by defending the Asian Games gold medal with a 19-run win over bitter foes Pakistan in the final here on Saturday.

The pitch was a tricky one but eased out later as world's No. 1 T20I batter Abhishek smashed 61 off 28 balls, with seven sixes, and vice-captain Tilak silenced his critics with a top-notch unbeaten 51 off 22 balls.

India posted a mammoth 211 for 6 in 20 overs before an unheralded Hasan Nawaz (96 off 51 balls) gave everything he had to make a match of it. But Pakistan were stopped at 192 for 6 in the end. India thus extended their dominance over the arch-rivals and kept the head-to-head since the start of the 2024 T20 World Cup to 6-0.

In between, Nawaz punished the Indian spinners before Jasprit Bumrah's experience (0/33 in 4 overs) and Washington Sundar's (2/29 in 4 overs) calmness ensured that there were no surprises in the end.

The 18th over in which Washington conceded only 8 runs turned out to be decisive.

The gold medal not only boosted India's tally but also released a bit of pressure that had been building up on skipper Shreyas Iyer after a horrible start to his national captaincy during a tour of the UK a couple of months back.

In Saturday's game, it was Abhishek, who finished the contest during India's batting Powerplay that yielded 81 runs. On a pitch where stroke-making was difficult, he smashed seven sixes, once again underlining his stroke-hitting capability.

In response, Nawaz, dropped on 4 by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, did hit some meaty blows but the scoreboard pressure was a real deal for the Pakistanis.

Nevertheless, Pakistan might have unearthed a T20 beast in the 24-year-old Nawaz, who is muscular and with a bit of hand-holding, can become an absolute world beater.

Earlier, Abhishek sent the Pakistan spinners on a leather-hunt and was in his elements as he completely took the pitch out of equation with a 20-ball half-century to destroy the opposition's spin-dominated attack.

He hit seven towering sixes -- two off which were off medium pacer Ahmed Daniyal -- apart from three boundaries.

Abhishek feasted on some friendly slow bowling, hitting sixes on both sides of the wicket with gay abandon.

Ishan Kishan (20 off 18 balls) briefly consolidated he team's position in company of skipper Shreyas Iyer (21 off 24) as they added 35 runs for the fourth wicket before Pakistan's best bowler -- left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas (2/25 in 3 overs) -- sent him back.

Arafat also varied his pace cleverly as he got the rampaging Abhishek stumped, which put some pressure on the defending champions.

The final flourish was provided by Tilak (51 not out off 22 balls) and Shivam Dube (27 off 15 balls) who blasted the spinners after a period of lull.

The duo added 62 runs for the sixth wicket in just five overs just when scoring quick seemed difficult.

The 18th over bowled by left-arm spinner Sufyan Moqim (0/33 in 3 overs) yielded 18 runs and then off-spinner Saim Ayub gave away 23 in the penultimate over.

In the last over bowled by pacer Ahmed Daniyal, 16 more were scored as India hit a total of 15 sixes on a track assisting the spinners heavily.

India scored 81 for 2 in Powerplay and the Pakistan team looked completely clueless after Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (15 off 9 balls) started the mayhem with a couple of sixes off debutant leg-spinner Saad Masood.

Sooryavanshi was dismissed trying to reverse hit off-spinner Ayub, who gave the 15-year-old a send-off with a "rocking the baby" celebration.

It was left-arm orthodox bowler Arafat who actually put brakes on scoring during the back-10 when both skipper Iyer and Kishan didn't actually get the big shots between overs 11 to 15.

Once Kishan was bowled by a delivery that was fast, straight and bounced a tad more, Iyer's painstaking knock ended off leggie Abrar's bowling. From 93 for 2, India had suddenly slumped to 133 for 5.

Arafat bowled wicket-to-wicket and let the ball do the rest by pitching it in right areas, while leg-spinner Abrar cleverly reduced the pace of his deliveries as Iyer literally struggled to get going.

Just when it seemed that India might not reach 200, the Tilak-Dube pair provided fireworks in the nick of time.