DUBAI
\nPakistan pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi has declared that his team will reach the Asia Cup final and can beat India if the arch-rivals clash again.
\nPakistan kept their campaign alive with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a Super Four clash in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
\nIndia and Pakistan have met twice in this edition of the regional competition but the neighbours have never played against each other in an Asia Cup final.
\nThe regional tournament, played this time in the United Arab Emirates under the Twenty20 format, started in 1984 and this is its 17th edition.
\nBangladesh, who face India on Wednesday and Pakistan on Thursday, stand in the way of the great rivals facing off in Sunday\u2019s decider in Dubai.
\nIndia are holders and beat Pakistan in both previous matches, but Shaheen was in bullish mood after taking 3-28 against Sri Lanka.
\n\u201cThey have still not reached the final, when they do, then we will see them,\u201d said Shaheen about facing India in the ultimate game.
\n\u201cWe are here to win the cup, whichever team comes in the final we are ready to beat them.\u201d
\nIf both teams reach the final, India will once again start as strong favourites having won 12 of 15 T20Is between the two countries.
\nIndia have also won the last seven internationals against Pakistan since September 2022, four T20Is and three one-day internationals.
\nThat sequence prompted India skipper Suryakumar Yadav to declare India-Pakistan \u201cis not a rivalry anymore\u201d.
\nIn both wins for India in the UAE there were no handshakes, adding another layer to an already intense rivalry.
\n\u201cIt is his opinion that, let him say that,\u201d said Shaheen of Suryakumar\u2019s cutting comments.
\n\u201cWhen they reach the final then will see. Our job is to win the Asia Cup, and we will make a complete effort to do that.\u201d
\nPakistan remain in contention for a place in the Asia Cup final after sealing a five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in a Super Four clash on Tuesday.
\nChasing a 134-run target, the Green Shirts knocked the winning runs for the loss of five wickets and 12 balls to spare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBAI Pakistan pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi has declared that his team will reach the Asia Cup final and can beat India if the arch-rivals clash again. Pakistan kept their campaign alive with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a Super Four clash in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. India and Pakistan have met twice …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87293,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87278\/revisions\/87293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}