IND vs PAK: India Win Ninth Asia Cup Title Beating Pakistan By Five Wickets

Hyderabad: India won the Asia Cup 2025 beating Pakistan by five wickets on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium. The team won their ninth Asia Cup title beating Pakistan for the third time in the ongoing edition. Tilak Verma was the star of the show with his crucial half-century while Kuldeep Yadav shone with the ball taking four wickets.

Pakistan post 146

Batting first, Pakistan got off to a brilliant start as Shaibzada Farhan played a knock of 57 runs from 38 deliveries and forged a partnership of 84 runs from 9.4 overs for the first wicket along with Fakhar Zaman (46). With the kind of the start Pakistan got, they looked to be heading towards a total of around 180 or more. However, Pakistan suffered a collapse after that and were reduced to 146/10 from 113/1 in 38 deliveries thanks to brilliant bowling from the Indian spinners in the middle overs.

Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets while Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel picked two wickets each. What started with a brilliant launchpad for the middle order batters ended up with the team posting a low total.

India's chase goes down the wire

India suffered a turbulent start chasing the target of 147. The target looked to be easy for the Indian team considering their campaign in the tournament before the final match became tough after India were reduced to 20/3 in four overs. Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson (24) steadied the innings after an early collapse but the latter was dismissed while attempting to switch the gears. Tilak kept on playing a sensible knock from one end mixing boundaries with singles smartly. Shivam Dube (33) joined him in the middle after Samson’s dismissal and the duo tilted the game in India’s favour with 17 runs needed from the last two overs.

Dube was dismissed on the last ball of the penultimate over and India needed 10 runs from the last over. However, Tilak ensured India’s win with a six on the second delivery of the last over and his knock of an unbeaten 69 runs sealed the win for India.

Backdrop of the contest

India and Pakistan were up against each other for the third time in the tournament and for the first ever in an Asia Cup final. The contest between these two teams witnessed a lot of drama on and off the field as well. The result of the match was the climax of the sequence of the controversial events that transpired since the first time when these two teams played against each other in the ongoing edition. Right from the handshake controversy to players being fined 30 % of their match fees for provocative gestures, the rivalry saw everything and India were crowned as the champions of Asia in the end.