Shalini SinghIndia beat Pakistan by 19 runs in the men's cricket final of the Asian Games 2026 at Korogi Sports Park, Nisshin, on Saturday 3 October, and kept the gold medal they won at Hangzhou 2023. Abhishek Sharma (61 off 28) and Tilak Varma (51 not out off 22) took India to 211 for 6. Hasan Nawaz's 96 off 51 balls kept Pakistan in the chase until the last over, and they finished on 192 for 6.
India's women had already beaten Sri Lanka in their gold medal match, so India won both cricket titles at these Games, as they did in 2023.
How India reached 211
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bat. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hit two sixes in the second over, bowled by the debutant leg-spinner Saad Masood, but was caught behind off Saim Ayub in the next over for 15. India were 28 for 1.
Abhishek Sharma did not slow down. He hit seven sixes in his 61 off 28 balls and was dropped once, in the fifth over. India made 81 for 2 in the powerplay. Sanju Samson fell for 2 in that spell. Abhishek was stumped off the left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas in the eighth over, with India on 93 for 3.
Pakistan's spinners then took control. Ishan Kishan (20 off 18) and Iyer (21 off 24) fell in successive overs, and India were 142 for 5 after 16 overs. India scored 69 runs off the last four overs. Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube (27 off 15) hit six sixes between them in that period. Ahmed Daniyal dismissed Dube with the first ball of the 20th over, and Tilak finished the innings with 6, 6, 2 and 1 to reach his fifty.
Nawaz's 96 and the chase
Pakistan needed 212. Sahibzada Farhan and Maaz Sadaqat put on 33 for the first wicket before Washington Sundar had Farhan caught at deep midwicket. Axar Patel then removed Usman Khan in the fifth over and Sadaqat in the seventh, and Pakistan were 39 for 3.
Hasan Nawaz changed the game. ESPNcricinfo reported that he could have been out for 4 when Sooryavanshi and Ravi Bishnoi collided going for a catch. After that he hit three sixes in five balls. He and Saim Ayub added 87 for the fourth wicket, and Nawaz reached his fifty in 28 balls.
Dube broke the stand when Ayub (29) holed out to Washington Sundar in the 15th over. That left Pakistan needing 86 from 35 balls with six wickets in hand.
The last two overs
Pakistan needed 44 from 12 balls. Jasprit Bumrah's last over cost 11 runs, 10 off the bat and a bye, and Saad Masood's straight six was its only boundary. That left 33 needed off the last over.
Dube bowled it. Nawaz hit the first ball for four, a wide followed, and then two dot balls ended Pakistan's chances. Nawaz hit a six and a two, and was caught by wicketkeeper Sanju Samson off a top-edged hook from the final ball, four runs short of a hundred.
The match in numbers
| India | Pakistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 211/6 (20 overs) | 192/6 (20 overs) |
| Sixes | 15 | 10 |
| Fours | 13 | 12 |
| Extras | 13 (11 wides) | 10 (7 wides) |
| Top scorer | Abhishek Sharma 61 (28 balls) | Hasan Nawaz 96 (51 balls) |
| Best bowling | Axar Patel 2/29, Washington Sundar 2/29 | Arafat Minhas 2/25 |
Axar and Washington bowled eight overs between them for 58 runs and four wickets. India's other bowlers, Bishnoi, Abhishek and Dube, conceded 100 runs in eight overs. Bumrah went wicketless (4 overs, 33 runs) but bowled the 19th over that left Pakistan too much to do.
Playing XIs
India: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah.
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Maaz Sadaqat, Hasan Nawaz, Saim Ayub, Usman Khan (wk), Abdul Samad, Arafat Minhas, Ahmed Daniyal, Saad Masood, Abrar Ahmed, Sufiyan Muqeem.
How the knockouts went
All four quarter-finals, on 28 and 29 September, were abandoned without a ball bowled. In the semi-finals on 1 October, Pakistan beat Bangladesh by six wickets and India bowled Sri Lanka out for 45 to win by 124 runs. Sri Lanka took bronze by beating Bangladesh by 63 runs earlier on finals day.
The full scorecard, ball-by-ball record of the last overs and both line-ups are on FairPlay's Pakistan vs India match page. Every result from the tournament is on the Asian Games men's cricket page.
Brief scores: India 211/6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 61, Tilak Varma 51*; Arafat Minhas 2/25, Ahmed Daniyal 2/43) beat Pakistan 192/6 in 20 overs (Hasan Nawaz 96; Axar Patel 2/29, Washington Sundar 2/29, Shivam Dube 2/33) by 19 runs.
Sources: ESPNcricinfo match report · Olympics.com match report · FairPlay's stored scorecard (Sportmonks data).
This report was written by the FairPlay Editorial Desk with AI assistance, using the published sources above, and checked against the official scorecard. It is reviewed by a FairPlay editor before publication. To report an error, see our Editorial Policy.