India vs. Pakistan is the most anticipated match of any World Cup. India played against Pakistan in 2011 as a host and won by 26 runs. Sachin Tendulkar proved why he is the GOAT of cricket.
ICC 2011 World Cup was played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India had the home-ground advantage and they used it properly. India vs. Pakistan could not happen in 2007 as India did not qualify for the next round. Therefore, the urge to play their arch-rival was at its peak.
ICC World Cup 2011: The path to the match
ICC World Cup 2011 was a very successful World Cup for India. India hosted the World Cup and won it. Most importantly, they did it in style. Sachin Tendulkar became the highest scorer, and Yuvraj Singh became the player of the tournament. Every Indian player contributed and performed during the World Cup.
India was in group B with Bangladesh, England, West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands, and South Africa. On the other hand, Pakistan was in group A with Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Canada, and Kenya.
India was second as they lost their match against South Africa and tied with England. Pakistan absolutely dominated their group and became first. Their only loss was against New Zealand.
India defeated Australia by 5 wickets and Pakistan defeated WI by 10 wickets in the quarter-finals. The two teams met at the 2nd semi-final at Mohali Stadium.
India’s batting
India won the toss and elected to bat first. Team India started explosively as they scored 73 runs in the first 10 overs. They lost only a wicket at that time. Things were looking extremely positive for India.
Meanwhile, after Sehwag’s wicket India’s batting became a bit slow. Sachin Tendulkar almost went out but the decision of LBW was reversed after a DRS appeal. Sachin Tendulkar was also dropped at 27(38). Pakistan’s fielding was in total shambles.
Gautam Gambhir and Sachin’s partnership kept India afloat, however, the Run rate became gradually slower. Gautam Gambhir was stumped after a 66-run partnership with Tendulkar. After a short while, Sachin Tendulkar was dropped yet again.
The next two wickets came in shortly after Gautam Gambhir. Wahab Riaz got the wickets of Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh. After this, team India kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Sachin Tendulkar scored the highest, 85 runs in 115 balls.
Pakistani bowlers were crucial in stopping Indian batting aggression later in the innings. Despite the abysmal fielding of Pakistan, the bowlers kept the batsmen in check. Wahab Riaz got a fifer. Saeed Ajmal got 2 wickets and Mohammad Hafeez got 1. Except for Umar Gul, all the regular bowlers were inexpensive as well.
The beginning of the Indian innings showed tremendous promise but the lower orders failed to deliver. Nevertheless, India had 260 runs on the board which is a defendable total in Mohali Stadium.
Pakistan’s target was 261 runs in 50 overs.
Pakistan’s batting
Pakistan started their innings with a boundary. They started to score rapidly. However, Zaheer Khan took Kamran Akmal’s wicket in the 8th over. Mohammad Hafeez was caught behind after some time. This is how the opening batsmen of Pakistan went into the pavilion.
In the next partnership, Asad Shafiq and Younis Khan started to become dangerous. The partnership was broken when Yuvraj Singh bowled Asad Shafiq. After this wicket, Pakistan’s batting suffered tremendously. They lost 8 wickets within 200 runs.
Misbah-ul-Haq had shown some resilience and scored 56 runs somehow. However, it was not nearly enough. The other side of the wicket was crumbling spontaneously. After two hundred runs, it was clear that only a miracle could save Pakistan today. Miracles did not happen and Pakistan was all-out within 231 runs.
Indian Bowlers shared 10 wickets among them equally. Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, and Yuvraj Singh each of them got two wickets. India won by 29 runs.
Man of the match and Post-match reactions
Sachin Tendulkar was named man of the match. Mohali is a very hard pitch to bat on. Nevertheless, the king of cricket bats like he can do it the entire day. Sachin’s innings had 11 exquisite boundaries.
After the match, Indian fans had many reasons to celebrate. It always feels good to beat Pakistan in a World Cup match. But this was not a simple Group match. This was the semi-final inside their country and Indian fans throughout the country celebrated like they meant it.
India went on to win against Sri Lanka in the final. But given the form Pakistan was in, this match was no less than a final.
This was India’s 5th win against Pakistan in a World Cup. India will continue to dominate Pakistan in the upcoming World Cup. Pakistan is yet to beat India in the one-day international World Cup.
