India has held its nerve in the last over to win cricket's Asia Cup for the ninth time with a five-wicket victory over arch-rival Pakistan with only two balls remaining.

Tilak Varma scored 69 not out for India off 53 balls in Monday morning's (AEST) final, including a crucial six against Haris Rauf in the 20th over.

Rinku Singh hit the winning runs with a four — the only ball Singh faced in the entire tournament.

Put into bat, Pakistan had earlier collapsed from 1-113 to 146 all out in 19.1 overs at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

That looked like being enough after defending champion India's terrible start to its innings, dropping to 3-20 after four overs, including the prized wicket of Abhishek Sharma (5).

But Varma and Shivam Dube (33) led the recovery as India reached 150-5 i

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