India vs Pakistan, 4th Match Group B at Birmingham, Jun 04 2017 - Ball by Ball Commentary

7.13pm Alright, folks. It's been a pleasure bringing you this game. Would have been nicer if we'd had a closer finish and it had lived up to all the India-Pakistan hype, but cricket is cricket. A shout out to all the fans from both sides and the neutrals, who sent in a massive load of comments, and almost all of it was good-natured. Great to see. Anyway, it's Australia-Bangladesh tomorrow. Do join us for that, as usual. Until then, goodbye!

Virat Kohli: "With the bat and ball, right up there - I would say nine out of 10. In the field we were still 6 today. Very strong performance, we've taken the confidence from the practice games. We need to tighten our fielding to compete hard against the best teams. Quite delighted with all batsmen chipping in with runs. Shikhar and Rohit - last time we won here, the opening partnership was crucial. Rohit took some time going, but he's coming back from an injury, and international cricket is different to IPL. I felt like a club batsman while playing alongside Yuvi, the way he was hitting the ball. And Hardik, 18 off five balls, was outstanding. We went with four seamers purely because we're playing Pakistan. They play spin really well, and most of them are right-handers. In pressure situations, to have mid-on, mid-off up and hit hard lengths, gives us an advantage. Against other sides, we might use two spinners, depending on their strengths."

Sarfraz Ahmed: "Everything was under control after 40 overs, but we lost the plot in the last eight. Credit to India's batsmen. They scored 124 in those last eight, and the momentum went to India. I think we need to stick together and control our bowling rate, especially last few overs."

Yuvraj Singh is the Player of the Match. "I thought we all batted really well," he says. "The openers gave us a good start, Virat finished well, and it gave me the opportunity to go and attack. You just have to go and back yourself, and tell the opposition that you're here to attack. I was lucky I was dropped, but I capitalised and I was hitting it well. I finished well. India-Pakistan is always a big game, and I think it has set us up really well. Hopefully we'll take this confidence into the next game against Sri Lanka."

Benny: "This will hurt nearly as much as how Dobell felt when he was left hanging by Younis Khan" -- Haha! Greatest handshake of all time!

Alok: "I feel I played an important role in this match. Every-time I submitted a comment here, wickets fell. This happened at least 6 times."

Robyn: "India at qualification cut-off ranked as No.1, Pakistan as No.8 - seems true based on the performance."

Sami: "Out of the box thing would be to trust players who have performed well in the domestic circuit. Playing Fakhar Zaman instead of Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail instead of Hafeez, Faheem Ashraf instead of Shadab Khan would be an out of the box thing, giving chances to people who deserve it. Playing old tried and failed experienced player will never get Pak anymore. If you keep doing what you did before, you will keep getting what you always got!!" -- A little harsh on Shadab, no?

6.56pm A long-drawn, frequently interrupted match, but only the weather really interrupted India's march today. They've won by 124 runs, and the margin simply doesn't lie. As is usually the case, Pakistan bowled better than they batted, but there were too many holes even in that bowling performance - Wahab Riaz, in particular, did not justify his inclusion ahead of Junaid Khan. Chasing a difficult, revised target was always going to be a steep test for Pakistan's batting - they didn't look like getting close at any point.

India, on the other hand, were simply better right through. A century opening stand, every member of the top four getting a half-century, an explosive finish, and no real weak links with the ball - none that this Pakistan side could exploit, at any rate. India's record against Pakistan in ICC tournaments is now 13-2.

Bumrah.

Umesh.