Holders India drub Pakistan to reach Super Eight

Ishan Kishan proved to be the point of difference in the keenly-awaited India-Pakistan clash in Colombo as the defending champions outclassed their neighbours to prevail by 61 runs and blaze into the Super 8 stages of the 2026 T20 World Cup.

On a surface that was a godsend for spinners, evidenced by Pakistan using a World Cup record of six slow bowlers, Kishan hit an ebullient 40-ball 77 to power India to 175/7. In reply, Pakistan’s top four combined to score a mere 15 runs before India’s spinners ran amok to put the men in green out of their misery. With this loss, Pakistan will have to beat Namibia in their final group game to seal their qualification.

“This is for India. We played the brand of cricket we wanted to play. We thought 175 was 15-20 runs over par — 155 would have made it a very tight game,” captain Surya Kumar Yadav said, as the thousands of touring Indian fans went home a jubilant lot.

Axar Patel added that neither the magnitude of the occasion nor the rivalry against Pakistan held sway over the Indian team. Their focus, he revealed, was firmly on planning and execution.

Brief Scores: India 175/7 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 77, Suryakumar Yadav 32; Saim Ayub 3/25) beat Pakistan 114 in 18 overs (Usman Khan 44; Hardik Pandya 2/16, Varun Chakaravarthy 2/17) by 61 runs