Mohammad Rizwan-led Pakistan National Cricket Team took on the Rohit Sharma-led India National Cricket Team in the fifth match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Sunday, February 23.
The match between Mohammad Rizwan-led Pakistan and Rohit Sharma-led India held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium ended with the Men In Blue registering a dominant victory.
Also Read: ICC Champions Trophy Points Table 2025: Updated Standings After India vs Pakistan, Match 5
Pakistan won the toss but lost the match
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first in the match. However, the batting unit of the team struggled against the Indian bowlers and they were unable to stitch together good partnerships.
Saud Shakeel emerged as the top scorer for his side as he slammed 62 runs. He was well supported by Mohammad Rizwan, who scored 46 but the rest of the batters and they posted 241 runs on the board.
Defending the total, Pakistan never looked in the game as Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, and Shubman Gill batted brilliantly and finished the match in 42.3 overs to hand Pakistan a 6-wicket loss.
We won the toss, but we didn’t get the benefit of the toss – Mohammad Rizwan
Speaking after the match, the Pakistan National Cricket Team skipper Mohammad Rizwan said that they were unable to make the most of the toss that they won. He added that he and Saud Shakeel had a good partnership, but poor shot selections led to their downfall and acknowledged that the Indian bowlers did a good job in the match.
“We won the toss, but we didn’t get the benefit of the toss. Their bowlers bowled very well. Me and Saud Shakeel, we wanted to take it deep. Poor shot selection. They put us under pressure,” Mohammad Rizwan said.
Mohammad Rizwan further lauded Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill for playing well and said that the duo took the game away from Pakistan. Rizwan admitted that they made plenty of mistakes and was hopeful of the team making improvements. He said:
“Whenever you lose, you didn’t perform in all departments. We wanted to squeeze, but we couldn’t. Kohli and Gill batted very well and took the game away. We need to improve in our fielding. We did a lot of mistakes in this match.”
Pakistan Lost Their Previous ODI vs India As Well
Pakistan’s last ODI against India came on October 14 during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and they suffered a crushing defeat after a shocking batting collapse.
Batting first, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq provided a decent start to Pakistan, with Imam scoring a fluent 36. The best partnership came between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, who stitched together an 82-run partnership. Babar hit a half-century while Rizwan played a steady knock of 49.
However, Pakistan’s innings got off the track dramatically after Babar’s dismissal. From a comfortable 155/2, they collapsed to 191/10 in just 42.5 overs.
Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah turned the game in India’s favor, while Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, and Hardik Pandya also chipped in with two wickets each. Pakistan’s middle order crumbled under pressure, with batters like Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, and Shadab Khan failing to contribute.
Defending 191 was always going to be tough, and Pakistan’s bowlers had a forgettable outing. Shaheen Afridi managed two wickets, dismissing Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma, but the damage was already done.
Hasan Ali took Virat Kohli’s wicket, but other bowlers struggled as Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul steered India to a dominant 7-wicket victory in 30.3 overs.
