By Karan Agrawal 
India registered a comfortable win against Pakistan in their second match of the 2025 Champions Trophy played in Dubai. Bowling first after losing the toss India restricted Pakistan to a below-par total of 241 runs courtesy of some disciplined bowling from the Indian bowlers, especially the spinners who kept piling the pressure in the middle overs along with Hardik Pandya who picked up the wicket of Babar Azam and stepped up to fulfill Shami’s role with the new ball as the fast bowler didn’t seem to be 100% fit. Hardik bowled 8 overs and picked up two wickets giving away just 31 runs in the process and was the pick of the bowlers along with Kuldeep Yadav who picked up three wickets.
The Chase
Chasing 242 runs to win India got off to a decent start as the opening duo of Indian captain Rohit Sharma and vice-captain Shubman Gill added 31 runs for the first wicket in 5 overs before Shaheen Afridi dismissed Rohit. Virat Kohli who walked in after the fall of Rohit Sharma’s wicket started cautiously with Shubman taking the charge at the other end as the right-hander took on Shaheen Afridi by hitting him for seven fours before getting out to Abrar Ahmed. Shubman’s wicket made the duo of Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer who walked in at number four slow down as the Pakistani spinners took control of the proceedings in the middle overs. But as has been the case with Pakistan the lack of quality spinners in the team came to haunt them as the Pakistani captain Mohammad Rizwan was forced to turn to his fast bowlers which allowed Kohli and Iyer to regain the momentum once the ball got soft.
The Knock
The duo took India to safety with a 114-run partnership before Iyer got out after scoring a fine half-century. With not many runs left for India to win the big question was will Virat Kohli get to his 82nd international hundred. Hardik who walked in at number five had other plans as he dispatched the second ball he faced to the boundary to make the Indian fans anxious before getting out. Hardik’s wicket might have given the fans hope of seeing Kohli score his 51st ODI century but the drama wasn’t over as Shaheen Afridi bowled a couple of wides to bring the telly of runs required for India to win to 9 with Virat Kohli needing the same amount of runs to score a century. With Kushdil bowling the next over Kohli had the chance of scoring a century by hitting a six but he decided to play according to the merit of the ball before Axar Patel denied to take the second run to let the former Indian captain score a memorable century and he did so by hitting the winning runs and take India to its third win over Pakistan in Champions Trophy.
The Praise
Shreyas Iyer who played a crucial role in guiding India to its second win in the tournament praised Virat Kohli for scoring a match-winning century.“I have never thought of Virat struggling for runs. It is just the mindset that he possesses over the years. He is always hungry for runs. I remember yesterday, he had come almost an hour before us for the practice session and he played a few balls and he was looking from outside. He looked as crisp as he looks all the time. So, I never feel that he is struggling for his runs,” the right-hander said in the post-match press conference. When asked about whether playing in Pakistan would have made a difference to the result of the match Iyer said “I haven’t played that many matches in Pakistan, so I don’t know exactly how it would have felt. But it’s a neutral venue and it’s a challenge for both the teams. But any victory against Pakistan is sweet because they are always competitive.”
The Pressure
Talking about the pressure of playing in an India- Pakistan game the middle-order batter said“It’s a challenge and there’s a lot of pressure externally as well. It was a lot of fun. It was my third game in Pakistan.” India will take on New Zealand in their final group game on March 2.