India vs Pakistan 16th Match at Melbourne, 23 Oct, 2022

Toss: India, who chose to bowl
Pakistan 159/8 (20)
India 160/6 (20)
India won by 4 wickets
Man of the Match: Virat Kohli
  • Ravichandran Ashwin 1 * (1)
  • Virat Kohli 82 * (53)

India won by 4 wickets

Virat Kohli | Player of the Match: It's a surreal atmosphere, I have no words, no idea how that happened. I am really lost for words. Hardik believed we can do it, if we stayed till the end. When Shaheen bowled from the pavilion end, that's when we decided to take him down. Haris is their prime bowler, and I hit those two sixes. The calculation was simple. Nawaz had one over to bowl, so if I could take Haris down, they would panic. From 28 in 8, it came down to 16 to 6. I tried to stick to my instincts. The first one was back of a hand-slower ball (the one over long-on). Standing here I just feel like it was meant to be. Till today Mohali was my best innings against Australia. Today I will count this one higher. Hardik kept pushing me. The crowd has been phenomenal. You guys (fans) kept backing me and I am grateful for your support.

Babar Azam (PAK ): Our bowlers bowled really well. All credit to Kohli and Pandya. It wasn't easy with the new ball. We had partnerships after 10 overs. We had a chance. We tried to stick to our plans. But credit to Virat Kohli. In the middle, we decided we wanted a wicket and held the spinner back. We had a lot of positives. The way Iftikhar played and the way Shan played.

Rohit Sharma (IND): I was in the dressing room. I don't have any words left. You got to expect something like this in a game like this. We wanted to stay in the game for as long as possible. That crucial partnership was the game-changing moment for us. The pitch had something in it. There was nice carry. Some swing and seam. Good to see from the bowling perspective. They had a good partnership (Iftikhar and Masood) after that. They batted well towards the end as well. But we knew we had to bat out of our skin to chase this. Those two guys (Kohli and Pandya) are experienced. Staying calm and taking the game deep was very critical. Good for our confidence. Always crucial to get off the mark like this. We were in no position to win this. The way we won that's more pleasing for us. Hats off to Virat for the way he batted, has to be the best innings he has played for India. I would like to thank everyone, it's wonderful to see. Their support for us is very, very crucial wherever we go.

Over 19.6: Wide ball. Mohammad Nawaz to Ravichandran Ashwin, 

Over 19.6 Mohammad Nawaz tossed up delivery to Ravichandran Ashwin,1 run, gets under the ball and lofts it over mid-off and gets the winning runs.  India wins a thriller.