India successfully defended their Asian Games men's cricket gold medal on October 3, beating Pakistan by 19 runs in the final at Nisshin, Japan. India posted 211 for 6 and then held off a late surge from Pakistan, who finished on 192 for 6, to complete back-to-back titles after winning gold at Hangzhou in 2023.
India's innings was built around a brisk 61 off 28 balls from Abhishek Sharma and an unbeaten 51 off 22 balls from Tilak Varma, the pair pushing India past 200 after a semi-final in which India had already bowled out Sri Lanka for just 45 on the way to a 124-run win. With the ball, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar each took 2 for 29 to keep Pakistan's chase honest through the middle overs.
Pakistan's chase looked dead early but Hasan Nawaz produced a counter-attacking 96 that dragged the match into the final over, with Arafat Minhas (3 for 25) and Ahmed Daniyal (2 for 43) unable to find enough support from the rest of the Pakistan batting order to finish the job. Shivam Dube, bowling the last over, conceded just 13 runs and had Nawaz dismissed off the final ball, sealing the gold medal for Shreyas Iyer's side with Pakistan agonisingly short.
The win completes a clean sweep of Asian Games cricket gold for India in 2026: the men's title arrives less than two weeks after India's women's team beat Sri Lanka by 147 runs to win their own final on September 22. It is also Pakistan's best-ever finish in Asian Games cricket, improving on the bronze they won at Guangzhou in 2010, after they reached the final by beating Bangladesh in a rain-reduced semi-final.
Asian Games cricket golds don't carry the same weight as an ICC trophy or a bilateral series win, but for a squad that mixed senior names with emerging players such as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, a gold medal against Pakistan in a final that went to the last over is still a meaningful entry on the résumé heading into a packed Indian home season. For Pakistan, Nawaz's innings and the run to a maiden final give their white-ball set-up a genuine positive to build on despite the defeat.
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The final's scorecard, margin of victory and player figures are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting from multiple outlets, current as of October 3, 2026.
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