India Beats Pakistan in Thrilling Asia Cup Final, Refuse Trophy

India defeated Pakistan yesterday in a thrilling match that came right down to the wire, crowning India as the champions of the Asia Cup for the ninth time.

The Asia Cup is a tournament of cricket teams across Asia that takes place every other year. A total of eight teams compete: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Oman, UAE, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, which are split into two divisions.

Coming into the match, India had already defeated Pakistan twice in the Asia Cup– once in regular matches and once in the second round, known as the Super 4. Both matches had been relatively easy for India, winning the first match with 25 balls remaining and achieving Pakistan's total with 7 balls remaining in their second meeting. However, Pakistan defeated both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Super 4, earning them a spot in the final against the reigning champions.

The match began with a strong start by Pakistan, with the top order achieving a total of 113 runs in just 13 overs while only losing the one wicket of Sahibzada Farhan. This set them up for a strong finish, but a lack of execution and poor efforts by the Pakistani middle order led to a complete collapse of their batting order. After a crucial four wickets from Kuldeep Yadav, three of which came in the same over, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah finished off the game, leaving Pakistan with 146 runs, all-out.

Nevertheless, India came in with expectations of an easy win, but the real game was anything but. While India's total was relatively easy to chase, overconfidence and over-aggressiveness from the opening batsmen led to a terrible start for the team– after 4 overs, they were 20-3. The next two batsmen to come out were Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson, who established a strong partnership, but Samson's wicket was taken in the 12th over. By the death overs, India required 36 runs off just 24 balls, setting up an extremely close last few overs.

By the end, they needed 17 runs off the last two overs, but two key sixes from Shivam Dube and Tilak Varma brought the required total down to just 5 runs. Dube was unable to finish after his wicket was taken, leaving Rinku Singh, a man who had not played a single ball in the entire tournament, to hit the winning shot. He slammed the ball for four, winning India the title.

Tilak Varma was named the Man of the Match for his heroic efforts in rescuing India from their poor start, scoring 69 runs off 53 balls in the process. Meanwhile, Indian opening batsman Abhishek Sharma was named the Player of the Tournament. While his performance in the final was not his best, he amassed a total of 314 runs throughout the Asia Cup– more than any other player.

Despite the win for India, the team refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy, which would be given by the president of the Asian Cricket Council, Mohsin Naqvi. Naqvi happens to be the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board and also serves as a prominent interior minister of Pakistan, which has experienced raised tensions with India ever since the Pahalgam incident in Kashmir earlier this year.

The attacks were allegedly conducted by Pakistani-affiliated terrorists, sparking outrage across India. Because of the incident, India had doubted even attending the Asia Cup, and they were reluctant to play Pakistan. Furthermore, the team clearly displayed several times that they were unwilling to conduct any sort of formalities with the Pakistani team, including the avoidance of post-match congratulations and shaking hands at the toss.

In the final, after the presentation ceremony was delayed by over an hour, several Indian players went up to receive their individual awards, after which Pakistan walked up to take their runner-up award. However, the post-match presentation then came to an end, with broadcasters announcing that India would not be coming up to take the trophy.

Pakistani captain Salman Agha told reporters that India's actions were a "disrespect to the game of cricket," not just Pakistan. However, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav expressed later that the team had made the decision to refuse the trophy, and he stated that the team's "real trophies" were the memories of their journey and the win itself, not the official prize. He also announced that he would be donating his earnings from the match to the Indian armed forces, conveying his and the team's continued support for India after continued attacks by alleged Pakistani terrorists.

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Image credit to Cricket Australia