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Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting hailed Rohit Sharma's 'outstanding' captaincy in India's thrilling six-run win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup match on Sunday and praised him for the manner in which he backed his bowlers while defending a small total.
After being bowled out for 119, India bounced back with the ball courtesy of brilliant spells from Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Pakistan's batters struggled to find any momentum in the run chase as they finished on 113/7 in 20 overs with Rohit rotating his bowers brilliantly.
"Rohit Sharma is a very experienced captain, isn't he? And, I just saw him then and said, 'mate, your captaincy today was outstanding'," Ponting said in a video posted by the ICC on Instagram.
"I don't think he could have done much more. You think about a lot of the bowlers that he's got in his team. He's actually had those bowlers in the IPL as well, not only for India.
"So, he understands them, knows when he can use them. But, it's one thing for the captain to set a plan, the bowlers are going to go ahead and execute it, and Hardik was outstanding."
Pakistan seemed to have the game in the bag needing 48 runs off as many balls with eight wickets in hand. However, the pace combination of the ever-effective Bumrah (3/14) and Hardik (2/24) brought India back from the dead with incisive spells that saw Pakistan lose wickets in a heap.
"I thought he (Pandya) did a really good job with the ball as well, and then, you break it down, and this has been a wicket that the seamers have liked," Ponting said.
"But, their spinners bowled four overs for 20 as well, and (Axar) Patel picked up a big wicket. Yeah, the wicket was definitely different in the second innings.
"You can see Pakistan got the ball to hold up through natural variation, and it was just a little bit tacky. But, when the sun came out, the wicket dried out quite quickly, and then, you have to adapt and adjust on the run. I thought he (Pandya) did that really well."
This was the lowest total successfully defended by India in T20 Internationals and the joint lowest target in the history of T20 World Cups.
This was India's seventh victory against Pakistan in T20 World Cups -- the most by a team against a particular opposition.