Ishan Kishan plays his best innings in a World Cup he is lighting up

Pakistan are spamming spin in the powerplay. Their offspinners in particular are testing the resolve of India's trio of left-hand batters at the top of the order.

Of these three, Ishan Kishan is the only one prospering, but he is doing so unsteadily. Kishan had thumped the first ball of pace over square leg for six, but Shaheen Afridi had had him under-edging the next ball past the stumps. Kishan had then crashed the first ball of Salman Agha's second over - the third of the innings - down the ground but Agha also had Kishan mis-hitting balls in the air, only to land safe.

At the end of the fourth over, India are 30 for 1, and Kishan's innings could still go either way. But then he gets a favourable match-up, legspinner Abrar Ahmed tending to turn the ball into him. First ball, Kishan plays a mighty slog sweep and thunders a six over deep midwicket. Later in the over, he cracks one through the covers for four. From this point onwards, he takes control, and doesn't let go until India are racing to an excellent total on a tough Khettarama pitch.

The last two overs of the powerplay go for 11 each, but it is in the next two overs - immediately after the field has gone back - that Kishan really takes the game by the collar. He takes down Abrar another time, deflecting him through deep third, then smoking him down the ground, then crunching him through the covers for a trio of fours. Then Shadab Khan, another bowler who tends to turn it into Kishan, disappears for a six over deep midwicket, and a four over short fine leg.

Kishan is out in the ninth over having just reverse-swept the daylights out of the previous delivery. But his 77 off 41 would remain the definitive contribution in this game. In the context of a big-turning surface, it is an innings of astounding impact.

The stats lay out its dominance:

• At the time of his dismissal, Kishan had scored 77 of India's 88 runs, or 87%
• India scored 87 at a run rate of 7.6 after Kishan's dismissal, compared to a run rate of 10.1 before then
• Kishan's strike rate of 193 is the highest-ever for an innings of 40-plus balls at this venue
• His 27-ball fifty is the fastest in an India vs Pakistan World Cup match

In this innings, Kishan was also required to succeed against spin, Pakistan bowling only that single over of pace while Kishan was at the crease. Kishan hit 66 off 37 against spin, which is the second-most at the Khettarama.

Kishan had been dropped from the India side at the end of 2023 partly because he had been limited against the spinners - his strike rate against slow bowlers down at 138. Since his return just ahead of this World Cup, however, he has struck at 214 against spin. That means this innings, in which he hit spin at 178, is actually bringing his post-return number down.

This is the only concession Kishan gave to a track that was taking big turn. No other player batted anywhere near as fluently for anywhere near as long as Kishan.

"Kishan's fearless," Mike Hesson, Pakistan coach and former IPL coach, said. "He's able to score both sides of the ground so he's not just committed to the leg side. We know he's incredibly strong. But he can reverse so if you've got spinners especially in the powerplay, it can be a challenge.

"But the fact that he's in a rare vein of form applied a lot of pressure to our spinners and probably took them away from the basics. The pitch was actually doing a lot when we bowled nice and slow into it. But outside of that, no one really scored better than a-run-a-ball other than Kishan. That innings certainly was a standout amongst the whole bunch."

To make his return to the team, Kishan had earned the selectors' attention by smoking 517 runs at a strike rate of 197 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, as captain of Jharkhand. This feels like taking the backwoods route into the India team, when the front door of the IPL exists.

But maybe going the hard way has added something to Kishan's resolve as well. For now, he has played his best innings yet in a World Cup he has started to light up.

Stats inputs by Namooh Shah