Usman, Qadir lift Pakistan to 337-9 in Asia Cup final against India

Qadir, who brought in his fifty off 39 balls, smashed eight towering sixes and three fours in his 54-ball 80 before being removed by Arjun Rajput. The duo added 135 runs for the second wicket stand that paved way for posting a decent total in the crunch slot.

Usman, on the other hand, was more judicious in approach and engineered some magnificent strokes towards all corners of the ground to bring in his second hundred of the event. Usman, who belongs to Peshawar, brought in his fifty off 46 balls and century off 106 deliveries, smashing 11 fours and three sixes in his fine knock.

Kavya Paresh Patel removed Usman, held by Arjun Rajput. Earlier Usman was also in involved in a 62-run opening stand with Hayam Khan, who made 23-ball 21, striking four fours. And it was the same opening stand which lifted the pressure off the rest of the batting.

The set stage was then usefully capitalised by skipper Farhan Yousaf who hammered his second fifty of the event. Farhan smashed 60-ball 63, hitting three magnificent sixes and four fours to guide his side past 300-run mark at a stage which mattered the most.

There were a few good overs for Pakistan which yielded substantial runs. In the ninth over of the innings Qadir smashed Kavya Patel for two sixes and a four and the over yielded 16 runs.

In the tenth over bowled by Manal Chauhan Pakistan plundered 15 runs. Usman started with a four and Qadir then hit the bowler for a four and six. The 33rdover yielded 16 runs with Farhan hitting Arjun for a four and six after Usman had hit him for a four.

The 23rdover from Manal Chauhan saw Pakistan scoring 19 runs with Qadir hitting two successive sixes and Usman smashing a four. Indian bowlers clawed back in the end as they checked the Pakistani batsmen. In the last five overs Pakistan scored only 32 runs.

Kavya Patel was the pick of the bowlers with 4-68 in ten overs while Chigurupati Venkata got 3-40 in five overs.