India demolish UAE in 2025 Asia Cup opener

India got off to a rock-solid start in the 2025 Asia Cup as they blew away UAE without any fuss, recording their biggest T20I win in terms of balls left in a chase.

Winning the toss, India opted to bowl first and despite UAE showing heart with the opening partnership between Alishan Sharafu and Muhammad Waseem, the bowlers were quick to bounce back and snuff out all defiance.

Sharafu (22) and Waseem (19) added 26 runs for the opening stand, offering a glimmer of hope to UAE. It was Jasprit Bumrah who provided India with the first breakthrough as his perfect yorker flattened Sharafu’s off-pole. Varun Chakravarthy soon doubled the trouble for UAE, claiming Muhammad Zohaib (2) in no time.

Rahul Chopra (3) decided to anchor the innings while Waseem focused on building what could have been a decent platform to fight on. However, the introduction of Kuldeep Yadav rolled over the plans of UAE. Yadav, who won the Player of the Match for a phenomenal bowling spell, kickstarted proceedings with the wicket of Chopra.

An over-pitched delivery turning away from Chopra caught him going for a wild hoick over long-on, only skying one for Shubman Gill to grab at the boundary. This was the start of an incredulous collapse that saw UAE crumble like a house of cards caught in the eye of the storm.

They lost their last eight wickets in a span of just 10 runs. Waseem, who proved to be the major straw of resilience for UAE was finally removed by Kuldeep. Yadav’s wrist spin continued to trouble UAE as he claimed a third in the form of Harshit Kaushik (2), leaving them wobbling at 50/5.

Desperate for a partnership, Asif Khan’s defensive approach backfired. While trying to follow Shivam Dube’s outswinger that seamed minimally outside the off-pole, Khan nicked one and Sanju Samson made no mistake in grabbing a simple one behind the wickets. A show dictated by Kuldeep Yadav until then soon saw Axar Patel joining in the act as he got rid of Simranjeet Singh with a fuller one that found the latter stranded in front of the stumps.

It only went from bad to worse for UAE as Shivam Dube dealt a double whammy, dismissing Dhruv Parashar (1) and Junaid Siddique (0) in the same over. Kuldeep Yadav returned to conclude the innings, removing the final front of defiance as he pocketed the wicket of Haider Ali (1), bundling out UAE for a paltry 57, incidentally the lowest T20I total ever against India.

With just 58 to shoot down, the Indian openers were quick to react as they wanted a swell in their NRR too. Abhishek Sharma made the intentions clear as he launched Haider Ali for a maximum over mid-off on ball one itself. The following delivery saw the southpaw whacking Haider over covers, claiming 10 runs in the first two balls of the innings.

If Abhishek Sharma powered home the start that India wanted, Shubman Gill revved up the scoring rate even further. With strikes raining from both ends, there was hardly anything that UAE could do. Sharma (16-ball 30) wanted to cap things off on a high, but lost his wicket in the process as Junaid Siddique finally managed to eke out a mishit from the hard-hitting southpaw.

However, that did very little to dampen the Indian spirits as Suryakumar Yadav arrived in the center and smashed Junaid for a six over fine leg in the very first ball that he faced. Shubman Gill delivered the final zinger, flat batting a four down the ground to seal the win for India in just 4.3 overs. Gill stayed unbeaten for 20 off nine balls. Kuldeep Yadav’s spell of 2.1-0-7-4 was more than enough for him to win the Player of the Match award.