T20 World Cup: Pakistan take early wickets as India chase 160

Melbourne: Defending a challenging total of 159 runs, Pakistani pacers bamboozled the Indian team by taking early four-wicket on 31 runs.

First to go was KL Rahul who was clean-bowled by Naseem Shah. The next to go was Indian captain Rohit Sharma who was caught at the first slip by Iftikhar Ahmad off Haris Rauf. India has so far scored 26 runs for the loss of two wickets in the sixth over.

Despite early hiccups, Pakistan set a challenging target of 160 runs to win for India in their T20 World Cup clash at a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Shan Masood top-scored with an unbeaten score of 52 runs off 42 balls studded with five boundaries but middle-order hard hitter Iftikhar Ahmad a swashbuckling knock of 51 runs off 34 balls with the help of four sixes and two sixes.

Shaheen Shah Afridi also added 16 runs to the country's total.

Pakistan squad:

Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper/batter), Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Shan Masood.

Standby players: Usman Qadir, Mohammad Haris, and Shahnawaz Dahani.

India squad:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammed Shami.

Standby players: Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur.