India beat Pakistan by 76 runs, in another World Cup match between the two cricket giants. Since the arch-rivals of cricket do not play friendly matches anymore, the World Cup, Asia Cup, and T-20 World Cups are the only places they meet. Pakistan has never beaten India in the ODI World Cup. The trend continued in this WC as well.
India beat Pakistan with an exotic display of batting and bowling prowess. Although the match did not change the equation of Pool B by a lot, this still had a lot more enthusiasm than any other match would have. Pakistan Vs. India never fails to deliver.
Dhawan & Raina’s partnership with Kohli
The match was played at Adelaide Stadium, Australia. Pakistan and India both were in the same pool, Pool B. The other members of Pool B were South Africa, the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and the UAE.
India won the toss and elected to bat first. It was a wise decision as India’s main strength lay in their batting. India had Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, and Ravindra Jadeja as their main batsmen and all-rounders. Even Rahane, Shami, and Ashwin can bat if it gets to them.
Although India’s batting is one of the best in the World, the same can be said about Pakistan’s bowling. Pakistan had a deadly combination of fast and medium-fast bowlers, perfect for the fast pitch of Adelaide.
India began the match rather slowly. The true and tested partnership of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar took 45 balls to score the first 34 runs. Unfortunately, Rohit Sharma was caught out by Misbah-ul-Haq while attempting to pull Sohail Khan.
The next partnership between Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan laid the strong foundation for India’s final score. The partnership was of 129 runs in 134 balls. The gap between overs and runs shrinks rapidly. However, Shikhar Dhawan was run out by Misbah-ul-Haq when Pakistani bowlers were desperate to break this partnership.
The next partnership was 110 runs between Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina. Virat Kohli scored a century and made 107 runs in 126 balls. When he was caught behind the wicket by Umar Akmal from a delivery of Sohail Khan, India had enough reason to score more than 300 runs.
However, After a short while, Suresh Raina’s wicket was also taken by Sohail Khan. India suffered for 16 runs or so. They lost 3 wickets within 3 deliveries, from 48.6 to 49.2 overs. Wahab Riaz was crucial along with Sohail Khan’s fifer to stop the Indian batting at the 300-run mark.
India could make only 16 runs in the last 15 balls. Pakistan became confident since they stopped a big disaster. Surely, chasing 300 is far better than chasing 350 runs. RR of 6.00 is very attainable.
Pakistan fell short of 76 runs
Pakistani batting has been their biggest flaw in the 2010s. Pakistan lost the match by a margin of 76 runs.
The first wicket of Younis Khan came in very early. Haris Sohail and Ahmed Shehzad built up a somewhat convincing partnership of 68 runs. After this partnership, the wicket kept falling at regular intervals. Pakistani batsmen were eternally struggling to chase the target.
Misbah-ul-Haq scored 76 runs, the highest for Pakistan. No other players played an innings worth mentioning.
On the other hand, Indian bowling was deadly and methodical. Mohammad Shami took 4 wickets, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma took 2 wickets each, and Ravindra Jadeja and Ravindrachandan Ashwin took 1 wicket each. All of the bowlers were very inexpensive for a high-scoring match.
All in all, Pakistani batting was in shambles and Indian bowling was very impressive.
Trivia of the match
- India’s win was their largest win in Australia.
- This was also the highest total of India against Pakistan in a World Cup
- Only two other countries have scored 300 against Pakistan in a World Cup. They are Australia and New Zealand
- The Virat Kohli’s century was his 22nd which made him the fastest guy to score so many centuries so quickly. It took him 143 innings.
- Kohli-Dhawan Partnership of 129 runs was the highest partnership of India against Pakistan in World Cups.
- This was India’s sixth win against Pakistan in the ODI World Cups
Virat Kohli was awarded Man of the Match for his stellar performance against Pakistan. This was also his 2nd man of the match against Pakistan. In short, India totally dominated Pakistan in the match. India was better than Pakistan in every possible way.
India vs. Pakistan matches are important for a reason. It was one of the highest-attended matches even in Australia. The rivalry between the neighbors exists in cricket for both historical and geo-political reasons. Nevertheless, the sportsmanship between the players of both countries is something we should aspire to.
The heart-warming scenes of players hugging each other solidify the saying, “Rivals not enemies.”
