India cruised to a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Pakistan in a one-sided Cricket World Cup clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
In a men’s 50-over World Cup, Pakistan has never beaten India. But when they reached 155-2 in the world’s biggest cricket stadium, it looked like they might be able to challenge the hosts.
After that, there was an implosion. Mohammed Siraj bowled captain Babar Azam for 50 runs, which was the start of eight wickets falling for 36 runs. Pakistan was then out for 191. Five Indian bowlers got two wickets, and Siraj was one of them.
The goal didn’t look like it would be a problem for India’s strong batting order. Both Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli were out for 16 runs, but Rohit Sharma, the home team’s captain, hit an amazing 86 runs that made the result clear.
Shreyas Iyer and Rohit shared 77 runs for the third wicket. Iyer ended on 53 not out, and the game was over with almost 20 overs to spare.
India has won three out of the last four games in this year’s World Cup, including the last two against Pakistan in 1992. This is their eighth straight win over Pakistan in the tournament. They are tied with New Zealand at the top of the group table. On Thursday, they play Bangladesh.
Pakistan lost their first game at the World Cup, but that won’t matter after seeing how weak they were against their biggest rivals. Next, on Friday, they play Australia in Bengaluru.
As always, this was said to be the best part of the tournament’s group stage. For some, it’s even more important than the midterm. The fact that this match between India and Pakistan took place in India made it even more interesting, since none of the Pakistan XI had ever played in India before.
Before the game, there was a concert, which was kind of like an opening ceremony but for the tournament. There is room for 132,000 people at the Narendra Modi Stadium. There were almost no Pakistan fans inside, so it was one of the most partisan sports environments ever. Every boundary and wicket for India was met with a cacophony of noise, while similar successes for Pakistan were met with almost silence.
At the point where Babar and Mohammad Rizwan put on 82 runs for the third Pakistan wicket, the game was very close. India and their fans were getting worried until Siraj got a ball to keep slightly low on its way to Babar’s off stump.
From there, Pakistan fell apart, mostly because of mistakes they made, which suggests that they are having a hard time mentally when it comes to this 50-over World Cup match. India needed to lose wickets quickly in order to be put under any kind of pressure, but Rohit’s strokeplay was almost rude.
India keeps going on what looks like an unstoppable path to the semi-finals, while Pakistan needs to get back together to play Australia. It is the first game in a tough and important run of games that also includes games against South Africa, New Zealand, and England.
As a whole, it’s another badly contested match in a World Cup that begs for a close ending.
India had already lost badly to Australia and Afghanistan, but this was by far their best game, even though they made the strange choice to leave off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin out of the team and instead play all-rounder Shardul Thakur.
The hosts sometimes went off track when they were going for the stumps on a pitch that stayed low. That gave Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique, Pakistan’s openers, a good start. They scored 36 and 20 runs, respectively, before Babar and Rizwan joined forces.
But India jumped when Siraj saw a chance. In 13.2 overs, they got rid of the last eight batsmen. Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav got rid of Saud Shakeel and Iftikhar Ahmed in the same over. Jasprit Bumrah bowled Rizwan for 49 with a great off-break. The ball was bowled or left behind seven times.
Even before the toss, Gill’s return from illness gave India a boost. He hit Shaheen Afridi to point in his first turn at the tournament. Kohli and Rohit then put together 56 runs for the second wicket.
Kohli played a bad swipe and was caught at mid-on by Hassan Ali. Rohit, on the other hand, kept using his easy power, especially his signature pulls into the crowd.
He missed the chance of a second straight hundred when he hit a slower ball from Shaheen to mid-wicket when 36 runs were still needed. Shreyas and KL Rahul had to finish the job.
It was a bad day for Pakistan that could change the course of their World Cup and could even affect Babar’s future as captain. While they are used to losing to India in World Cup games, this was a shame.
The batting collapse was timid, with a whirlwind of careless hits that showed how much they relied on Babar and Rizwan. Once the top four were gone, only Hassan got to ten.
Pakistan’s bowling and fielding slowly fell apart, even though they got some wickets early on. There has only been one other time in one-day internationals when India beat Pakistan with more than 117 deliveries left.
They beat the Netherlands and Sri Lanka, so it was reasonable to think that Pakistan would win this match. This was their first big test of the tournament, and they failed.
They are probably in a race with South Africa, Australia, England, and New Zealand for three spots in the semi-finals. They will need to do much better in their next few important games.
Pakistan has a history of getting better in tournaments and coming back from losses. It is not impossible that they will play India in the final on the same pitch on November 19, but they will need to quickly forget about this painful loss.
Photo by Vipin Pawar/Shutterstock
