T20 World Cup 2026: India vs Pakistan, Match 27 – Who Said What?

In one of the most anticipated games of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, India edged past Pakistan in a one-sided manner at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on February 15. 

After being invited to bat first, India produced a powerful batting performance. After losing Abhishek Sharma early in the innings, his opening partner Ishan Kishan played a match-turning innings that propelled India to a formidable total. He scored 77 off just 40 balls with an impressive strike rate of 192.5.

India finished with 175/7 in their 20 overs thanks to some valuable contributions from Suryakumar Yadav (32 runs, 29 balls), Shivam Dube (27 runs in 17 balls), and late finishing by Rinku Singh, who scored 11 quickfire runs, putting pressure on Pakistan towards the end.

In reply, Pakistan came out attacking but India’s bowlers struck early to keep the pressure on. Hardik Pandya took a wicket in the very first over, removing the dangerous Sahibzada Farhan while Jasprit Bumrah delivered a two-wicket over, dismissing Saim Ayub and Salman Ali Agha to break Pakistan’s back. 

It was a spirited show by the hosts as they restricted their arch-rivals to a mere 114 runs, registering a famous 61-run victory. Pandya, Bumrah, Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy picked up two wickets each, while Kuldeep Yadav and Tilak Varma took one each to give their side a sensational win.

Who Said What? 

Ishan Kishan, Player of the match 

“I think the wicket was not that easy in the beginning, but sometimes you just have to believe what you want to play, what shots are on, and you have to just focus on your strength. So I was just keeping it simple and watching the ball and playing with the field, maybe trying to make them run as much as they can, but yeah, I think it worked pretty well on my side.”

“I was just trying to keep it simple, like I said, trying to hit the gaps, trying to at least take two runs because the wicket was not easy. I had that in mind that we need to put a total like 160-170 runs and it will be a very good total for us.”

“India v Pakistan is always a special game not only for us but for our country as well. So we had to win this one because it was a very important game and they had pretty good spinners in their side and we were just supposed to play the good shots and yeah, winning this against Pakistan team… it will give us a lot of confidence going ahead in the tournament and we’ll try to just keep the momentum going.”

Salman Ali Agha, Pakistan (Losing captain)

“Our spinners had an off day. Execution was missing in some parts. We believe in our spinners, they’ve done well in last six months. We lost too many wickets in the powerplay with the bat. In the first innings it was tacky, the ball was gripping as well. The execution was missing with the ball. Pitch played better in the second innings than it did in the first.”

Suryakumar Yadav, India (Winning captain)

“I think this is for India. We played the same brand of cricket what we wanted to play. Batting first was better option on this wicket. Ishan thought something out of the box. After 0/1, someone had to take responsibility and the way he took it was amazing. It’s difficult to say when you’re batting first. Because you never know if there will be dew or how the pitch will play under lights. But we felt it was 15 above par. 155 could’ve been a tight game.”

“It was great to see everyone contributing with the ball. We’ll go back, have a good time together as a team and then think about the other games when we take the flight to Ahmedabad.”