Rohit, Dhawan's tons propel India to Asia Cup finals

India dominated arch-rivals Pakistan once again and booked their place in the finals of the ongoing Asia Cup after the Indian side registered a nine-wicket victory over Pakistan in their Super Four fixture face off at the Dubai International Stadium here on Sunday.

India's stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma and opener Shikhar Dhawan stitched together an impressive 210-run partnership at the top as their side notched up a convincing win over Pakistan with 63 balls to spare.

The 210-run partnership between the two was the best opening stand by India against Pakistan. It was also India's biggest win in terms of wickets against Pakistan in One-Day Internationals.

Chasing a target of 238 runs, both Sharma (111) and Dhawan (114) notched up a century each to impose their dominance over Pakistan from the onset of the innings.

Sharma scored his 19th ODI ton off 106 balls while Dhawan smashed his 15th century off 95 balls. Dhawan's brilliant innings ended on 114 off 100 balls, while Sharma remained unbeaten on 111 off 119 balls.

When Sharma reached 94 today, he became the ninth Indian batsman to score 7000 runs in ODIs.

Dhawan, who produced an impressive performance with the bat, was adjudged Man of the Match.

Riding on the back of right-hand batsman Shoaib Malik's crucial contribution of 78 runs, Pakistan had set a target of 238 runs for India.

Pakistan made a slow start to their innings as they lost their opening wicket in the form of Imam-ul-Haq at the score of 24. Another opener, Fakhar Zaman, along with Babar Azam, built a partnership of 31 runs before the latter was sent back to pavilion following an excellent run out by Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

However, skipper Sarfraz Ahmed and veteran batsman Shoaib Malik played impressive knocks of 44 and 78, respectively, to keep the Pakistan scoreboard ticking.

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah gave the team a crucial breakthrough as he dismissed Malik to put his side on the driving seat.

While Asif Ali added 30 runs to the Pakistan scorecard, low order players Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz managed to add just 25 runs together.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav scalped three wickets each in the match to restrict Pakistan to a score of 237 runs in their stipulated 50 overs.

The Men in Blue had earlier clinched an eight-wicket win over Pakistan in their Group A match.