Dubai, Oct 24: Virat Kohli produced a captain’s knock to help India recover from a shaky start to set Pakistan 152 to win in the crunch Group 2 game in Dubai.

Kohli’s 57 off 48 deliveries was his 29th T20 half-century for India and his 10th at World Cups, and came at a particularly important time for his team after a fiery opening spell from Shaheen Shah Afridi blew apart the top order.

Afridi produced two stunning deliveries to get Pakistan off to a flier, after Babar Azam had won the toss and opted to bowl first.

The 21-year-old’s rocket of a yorker had Rohit Sharma trapped plumb in front for a first-ball duck inside the opening over.

And the Pakistan left-armer bagged the scalp of KL Rahul in his second over, swinging one back through the gate at high pace to castle the opener’s stumps.

Suryakumar Yadav’s short-lived counter-attack was ended by a brilliant catch by Mohammad Rizwan off Hasan Ali.

But captain Kohli anchored India’s recovery, helping his side to 60/3 at the midway point of the innings, before upping the scoring rate in the second half of the innings.