Less than 24 hours after India’s Priyank Panchal declared “Defeated Pakistan. Business as usual.” on social media, those five words came back to haunt him.
The India batter’s swaggering post, made after a Dinesh Karthik-led side edged Pakistan by two runs via DLS in their Hong Kong Sixes opener, suddenly looked badly dated by Saturday morning.
Instead of another routine win, India were humbled by Kuwait, going down by 27 runs in a Pool C game that flipped the narrative of the group. Kuwait posted 106 for 5 in their six overs, and India’s reply fizzled out at 79 for 6, leaving Karthik’s men at the bottom of the pool.
From flex to nightmare
Panchal’s original tweet came on Friday after India scraped past Pakistan. Uthappa’s 28 off 11 and Bharath Chipli’s 24 off 13 had taken India to 86 for 4 before rain halted Pakistan’s chase at 41 for 1 after three overs, handing India a two-run win via the DLS method. Panchal, not a part of the playing six for the match, still landed the viral punchline: “Defeated Pakistan. Business as usual.”
On Saturday against Kuwait, he was right in the middle of the action and on the receiving end of things. With Kuwait 74 for 5 after five overs and India seemingly on top, Karthik tossed the ball to Panchal for the final over of the innings. Yasin Patel then tore into the part-time medium pacer, launching a sequence of towering blows that turned the game on its head. Yasin hit the first five balls for maximums and finished the innings off with a couple to notch up 32 runs in Panchal’s over, scoring a half-century in the process and taking Kuwait’s total to 106/5.
Chasing 107, India collapsed early. Robin Uthappa fell first ball, Karthik made just 8, and Stuart Binny was run out cheaply as India slumped to 12 for 3. Panchal did show some fight with 17 off 10, including two fours and a six, while Abhimanyu Mithun and Shahbaz Nadeem briefly kept the equation interesting. But the damage from Yasin’s assault and the top-order failures left too much to do, and India finished 27 runs short.