T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12s: India v Pakistan – live

14th over: Pakistan 98-5 (Shan Masood 30) Three sixes in over over, two wickets in abother. Meanwhile Shan Masood hasn’t even faced a ball.

WICKET! Haider Ali c Suryakumar b Pandya 2, Pakistan 98-5

WICKET! Shadab Khan c Suryakumar b Pandya 5, Pakistan 96-4

13th over: Pakistan 96-3 (Shan Masood 30, Shadab Khan 5) That should cheer Pakistan fans up a bit after Iftikhar’s departure: Shadab Khan walks in and rifles a straight drive down the ground for four.

WICKET! Iftikhar Ahmed lbw Shami 51, Pakistan 91-3

12th over: Pakistan 91-2 (Shan Masood 30, Iftikhar Ahmed 51) Axar Patel on to bowl his first over, and his first ball is destroyed! Iftikhar goes down on one knee and pounds it over deep midwicket, a massive boundary and he sends it deep into the crowd. What a hit.

Two balls later? Same treatment. Over long-on this time, straighter, after he advances and meets the pitch of the ball. Hits it sweetly and forever.

And the next ball. This one isn’t as clean a hit, and KL Rahul at long-off dives over the rope and gets hands to it, but can’t knock it back into the field of play.

Iftikhar follows with a cut shot for three to finish the over, taking 21 from it.

Thanks Simon – Geoff Lemon back with you.

10th over: Pakistan 60-2 (Shan Masood 29, Iftikhar Ahmed 21) Iftikhar cuts wide of third for four, nicely judged, and then he doesn’t quite get hold of a pull, which is just as well because it was going straight to Suryakumar Yadav, who in the end gathers on the bounce. And that’s your mid-innings drinks break.

11th over: Pakistan 70-2 (Shan Masood 30, Iftikhar Ahmed 30) More from Ashwin, and finally Iftikhar is throwing off the shackles! Down the track he comes, and back over the bowler’s head goes the ball! That is an Aramco maximum, or whatever they call sixes these days.

9th over: Pakistan 50-2 (Shan Masood 28, Iftikhar Ahmed 13) Ravichandran Ashwin has a chance to make amends for that kind-of-drop – I think he’d have got there had he reacted quicker as the ball headed his way – with the game’s first over ofd spin. The batters have a couple of heaves but don’t quite nail their timing, and the boundary is so distant they can’t get there. Fifty up.

8th over: Pakistan 44-2 (Shan Masood 25, Iftikhar Ahmed 11) An element might be describes as sanity settles over the game, so Shan immediately lifts the ball high to third, where Ashwin is slow to move, and eventually has to dive forward to gather the ball. India celebrate the catch, the crowd goes wild, the batters wait for the catch to be checked, and it looks like ball landed just before hand so he survives. Another tight over, mind.

7th over: Pakistan 42-2 (Shan Masood 24, Iftikhar Ahmed 11) Hello everyone! This is fun, yes? I’m in the MCG but more or less side-on to the action, so not able to fully appreciate the swing that has been so bothersome for the batters. What I am appreciating is the atmosphere, absolutely stonking. Anyway, Hardik Pandya has a go and gets very close to a run-out as Shan drops the ball short, heads down the pitch, is sent back again and gets there just before the bowler gathers, throws and hits the stumps.

The over ends with a boundary, Shan top-edging a pull to fine leg for four.

6th over: Pakistan 32-2 (Shan Masood 19, Iftikhar Ahmed 7) A change for the final over of the Powerplay, with Mohammed Shami to bowl. In India’s final warm-up match against Australia he only bowled the 20th over… and took three wickets to win the match. He has two slips in place. Why not. Cuts the ball off the seam twice to start with, at 140 kph on a hard length, and Masood can’t do a thing with it. So he backs away a touch third ball and jams it through point for four! Follows it with another flicked three, denied by the MCG’s long boundaries. Iftikhar knocks a single square.

We’ll have a handover for a little while, with Simon Burnton hopping in to the comms chair.

5th over: Pakistan 24-2 (Shan Masood 12, Iftikhar Ahmed 6) Masood has been in great touch recently in English country cricket, and he plays a county stroke as he clips Bhuvi Kumar off his pads for three runs. Iftikhar plays a similar shot for two, then leans back and clubs a pull shot for four. Got to counterattack here.

WICKET! Rizwan c Bhuvneshwar b Arshdeep 4, Pakistan 15-2

3rd over: Pakistan 10-1 (Rizwan 4, Shan Masood 4) They still can’t lay bat on ball! Bhuvneshwar is bowling to Shan Masood now, and cuts him in half twice in a row, then three times in the over, to smash the ball into pad. A wide and a dicey leg glance are the only avenues for Pakistan to score until Shan Masood squeezes out a yorker and Rizwan is sharp enough to call him through.

2nd over: Pakistan 6-1 (Rizwan 4, Shan Masood 1) So in comes Shan Masood and picks up where Rizwan left off: unable to lay bat on ball. Left-hander facing left-armer, and the latter is hitting a length and getting swing, like a Test match first morning. Eventually Shan Masood tries the Morse cod run – dot, dot dash – and would have been run out at the non-striker’s end had Virat Kohli hit the stumps with an underam throw from mid on. First run off the bat after 11 balls. But Rizwan finishes the over well: Arshdeep doesn’t correct his line for the right-hander, and delivers it on the pads to offer a leg glance for four.

WICKET! Babar lbw Arshdeep Singh 0, Pakistan 1-1

1st over: Pakistan 1-0 (Rizwan 0, Babar o) Bhunvneshwar Kumar starts things off, and he looks to be operating at top pace from the beginning. Rizwan leaves the first ball outside off, but the second leaps alarmingly at him and smashes him on the glove! Painful. He needs the physio, gets treatment, and elects to bat on. Third ball, zips over the top edge of the diagonal bat as he flails at it. Pace, bounce, carry from Bhuvneshwar, with a perfect seam position. Fifth ball: flail and miss! The bounce again! The seam movement taking it away from the bat. Only the sixth ball spoils the sequence, down the leg side marginally for a wide. The replacement delivery cuts into Rizwan and tenderises his thigh pad, too high and going down leg although the bowler appeals.

What a first over!

And we’re away…

Huge flags on the outfield held by volunteers. The teams in front of them. The anthems play out, voices rolling around the amphitheatre in waves. Goosebump moment.

The fireworks go off – the literal ones – and the bowl of the MCG is filled with smoke. It dissipates quickly in the cool swirling Melbourne air. This is October, not yet summer, so it’s not freezing but it’s on the brisk side.

So much of today’s result will come down to the pairing between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan at the top of Pakistan’s batting order. They are the most prolific pair in history, with 2313 runs together for Pakistan at an average of 53.

Mind you, second spot goes to Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, with 1809 runs at 51.

People on the internet might have a set against Virat Kohli, but the difference in crowd response when he appeared on the big screen compared to every other Indian player tells you that he’s by far the favourite with the average spectator in the crowd.

Teams

Right then. I’m told that Rohit said the overcast conditions made him hope for swing, hence bowling first. Babar thinks that 160 could be competitive – could be right, given the MCG pitch is often a bit slow, and the boundaries are so big.

India win the toss and will bowl

Wowwww! A huge roar at the ground as Ravi Shastri appears on the big screen to conduct the toss. He’s back.

Drop me a line: my email is [email protected], or I’m on the tweets at @GeoffLemonSport. There’s often not much time during a T20, but we’ll try to get some reader contributions into the coverage if you have something interesting or original to add. Consider the gauntlet thrown down.

What about the weather? The talking point for the last few days has been the likelihood of rain. We had lots of it on Friday night, some more on Saturday and Saturday night, but none so far today. And the radar for now looks clear! Happy days and happy nights.

Preamble

Geoff Lemon