India crushes Pakistan by 61 runs in marquee game in T20 World Cup. No handshakes again

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Archrivals India and Pakistan declined to shake hands before and after the most-anticipated game of cricket's Twenty20 World Cup, with India easily winning by 61 runs on Sunday to secure its Super 8 spot.

India opener Ishan Kishan scored 77 off 40 deliveries in a match which almost didn't take place after Pakistan had threatened a boycott earlier this month before reversing its decision.

Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha and India captain Suryakumar Yadav didn't shake hands at the toss, which Pakistan won and chose to field. India and Pakistan players had refused to shake hands at last year’s acrimonious Asia Cup tournament in the United Arab Emirates that took place amid diplomatic and military tensions between the two neighbors.

India made a competitive 175-7 on Sunday on a sticky pitch at R. Premadasa Stadium. In reply Pakistan was bowled out for 114 in 18 overs. Despite the heavy defeat, Pakistan can still advance from Group A. It plays Namibia in its last group game.

Sunday’s game was the first time the teams have met since the Asia Cup, won by India.

India's batting suffered an early setback when its most aggressive batter Abhishek Sharma was dismissed without scoring. Agha bowled the first over with four consecutive dot balls and had Sharma caught by Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Kishan pulled India back with a six and two fours in the following over and he dominated an 87-run stand for the second wicket off 46 deliveries with Tilak Varma.

Kishan's innings included three sixes and 10 boundaries before being bowled by off spinner Saim Ayub.

Ayub took two consecutive wickets in his last over to finish with his career-best T20 bowling of 3-25.

India captain Yadav (32 off 29) and Shivam Dube (27 off 17) made useful contributions for India.

Seam bowler Hardik Pandya gave India an ideal start with a wicket-maiden over, dismissing Sahibzada Farhan in the fourth delivery.

Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets in the next over — Ayub (lbw for 6) and Agha (caught by Pandya for 4).

Spinner Axar Patel bowled Babar Azam (5), leaving Pakistan 34-4.

Usman Khan resisted with a 34-ball 44 but was stumped when he stepped out to hit Patel.

Pandya, Bumrah, Patel and Varun Chakravarthy took two wickets each.

In the lead-up to the match in Colombo, Agha said he believed it was up to the Indian players to decide whether they would shake hands with his team before and after Sunday’s game.

Yadav, for his part, had been non-committal.

“Why are you highlighting that?” Suryakumar asked reporters on the eve of the game. “We are here to play cricket. We will play good cricket. We will take all those calls tomorrow. We will see tomorrow.”

Pakistan’s government considered not playing Sunday’s match after the International Cricket Council kicked Bangladesh out of the World Cup for refusing to play matches in India, citing security concerns.

Pakistan only agreed to play after intense discussions with the ICC. The fixture is a major revenue earner for the ICC.

Political and military tensions have meant the two teams have not played a bilateral series for years.

India has not traveled to Pakistan since 2008 and Pakistan visited India for the 50-over World Cup in 2023 but has since played ICC tournaments at neutral venues.

India has defeated Pakistan 13 times in the 17 T20 games they have played. It now also has an impressive 8-1 record in the nine T20 World Cup matches since the first edition in 2007.

At Mumbai, West Indies notched its third successive win in Group C when it thumped Nepal by nine wickets and qualified for the Super 8 stage of the tournament.

West Indies had already beat Scotland and England to take command of Group C.

Nepal showed plenty of promise in its first game when it lost narrowly to England, but then two heavy defeats against first-timer Italy and Sunday against West Indies saw it eliminated.

Fast bowler Jason Holder grabbed 4-27 and restricted Nepal to 133-8. ShaiHope then smashed an unbeaten 61 off 44 balls and Shimron Hetmyer scored 46 off 32 balls as West Indies cruised to 134-1 in 15.2 overs.

Sanjay Krishnamurthi kept the United States' hopes of Super 8 qualification alive with a maiden T20 half-century – 68 not out off 33 balls – against Namibia in their Group A clash.

Skipper Monank Patel also scored 52 off 30 balls as the U.S. notched up its tournament highest score – 199-4 in 20 overs.

In reply, Namibia was restricted to 168-6, losing its third game and is now eliminated from the competition.

The U.S. won its final game by 31 runs.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Pakistan's Usman Tariq is bowled out by India's Hardik Pandya during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

India's captain Suryakumar Yadav, right, and Ishan Kishan celebrate after India won their T20 World Cup cricket match against Pakistan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

India's captain Suryakumar Yadav, left, and Pakistan's captain Salman Ali Agha walk past each other after the coin toss of the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Pakistan's captain Salman Ali Agha, left, looks at India's captain Suryakumar Yadav after the coin toss of the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

India's captain Suryakumar Yadav tosses the coin before the start of the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

West Indies' captain Shai Hope, right and Shimron Hetmyer run between the wickets to score during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Nepal and West Indies in Mumbai, India, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

West Indies' Jason Holder, second left, Nepal's Aarif Sheikh during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Nepal and West Indies in Mumbai, India, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

West Indies' captain Shai Hope, right, pats on the shoulder of Nepal's captain Rohit Paudel after the coin toss during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Nepal and West Indies in Mumbai, India, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

India's captain Suryakumar Yadav reacts as he leaves the ground after losing his wicket during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Namibia in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

FILE - Pakistan's Salman Ali Agha walks off the field after his dismissal during the third T20 cricket match between Pakistan and Australia, in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday.

Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation.

Several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast in the wake of the raid, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight. The Defense Department said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”

“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.”

Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker.

The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged vessel under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Veronica III left Venezuela on Jan. 3, the same day as Maduro's capture, with nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil, TankerTrackers.com posted Sunday on X.

“Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil,” the organization said.

Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told The Associated Press in January that his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine.

The Trump administration has been seizing tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of the Venezuela's oil. The Pentagon did not say in the post whether the Veronica III was formally seized and placed under U.S. control, and later told the AP in an email that it had no additional information to provide beyond that post.

Last week, the U.S. military boarded a different tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II. The ship was being held while its ultimate fate was decided by the United States, according to a defense official who spoke last week on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making.

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Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

FILE - The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)