India vs Pakistan Asian Games final: Key facts

Result: India won by 19 runs on October 3.

India: 211 for 6. Pakistan: 192 for 6.

Top scorers: Abhishek Sharma 61, Tilak Varma 51 not out, Hasan Nawaz 96.

India now have two successive men’s cricket golds at the Asian Games.

Players did not shake hands before or after the match.

Hasan Nawaz scored 96 off 51 balls for Pakistan, with seven sixes and five fours, but could not take his side home.

The result gives India a second successive gold in men’s cricket at the Asian Games.

It was India’s seventh consecutive T20 win over Pakistan, according to Al Jazeera.

The captains did not shake hands before the match, and the players did not shake hands afterwards either.

It was the fifth consecutive men’s match between the two teams in which players declined handshakes.

The medal ceremony was significantly delayed, and no official reason was given for the delay.

ICC chairman Jay Shah presented medals to the Indian players, while Pakistan and bronze medallists Sri Lanka received theirs from Asian Games officials.

The Asian Games 2026 are being held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.

The cricket competition at the Games is played in the T20 format, with each side batting for a maximum of 20 overs.

To win the match Pakistan needed to chase 212 runs, which meant scoring at more than ten runs an over.

A T20 total of 211 is a high score for a final, and it required Pakistan to attack from the start.

Sri Lanka took the bronze medal in the men’s event, according to Al Jazeera’s report.

Cricket was played at the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014, was left out in 2018, and returned at the 2023 Games in Hangzhou, where India won the men’s title.

Abhishek Sharma’s 61 gave India the platform for the late scoring that carried the total past 200.

Cricket stadium (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, public domain