A determined and aggressive Pakistan
registered their first ever win against India in the ICC one-day and T20 World
Cups after 12 losses suffered in consecutive tournaments. The first match Super-12 in Group-2 that promised
to be a super Sunday thriller turned out to be a one-sided dampener with a
listless Indian attack on the field as Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets. They overhauled
India’s rather tricky target of 152 quite easily with all wickets standing and
more than two overs remaining. However, the story of the encounter did have a
very different beginning to which India could not reciprocate in the most
fitting way.
In the midst of the syndrome of ‘chasing
is the key for victory’ India captain Virat Kohli lost the toss to Pakistan
captain Babar Azam and was put into bat as expected. Then the drama just began
on the field: the fury of young leftie fast bowler Shaheen Afridi devouring
Rohit Sharma in his first over and KL Rahul in his second over; the Indian
captain mixing anchoring with selective aggression to prevent this team
collapsing like the West Indies the previous day; the extra efforts being put
in by the Pakistan fielders, normally considered a weaker fielding side; the
explosive innings of Rishabh Pant (39) including two consecutive one-handed
sixes off pacer Hasan Ali; with six wickets in hand in the 17th over
the third Pakistan pacer Rauf holding Kohli and Jadeja back; Kohli notching up
a precious half century; a still-charged Afridi capturing Virat (57) in his
last and the match’s penultimate over; and the visibly palpable tension both in
the players out on the field and among the fans of the two sides thronging the
stadium in Dubai. It was perhaps apparent that any total above 100 should be
enough to put pressure on the opponents. However, in a typical and a
rare-variety-now India Vs Pakistan encounter anything was possible. And of
course, living through the glorious elements of the game and the taut
excitement is more than enough for the viewers out there or before the
television/computer/mobile screens, whoever happens to win.
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| Shaheen Afridi 3/31 |
Finally, India achieved the total of 150
runs in the penultimate ball of the last over and one run in the last ball with
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar taking the charge of batting out the over. As if achieving
150 runs were a milestone it was now up to Pakistan to handle the tension and
pressure of the classic encounter. Their bowlers and fielders did a fair job
and not a single catch was dropped, and now the focus was on the Pak batsmen. Would
Virat’s team be able to reciprocate with an equally charged-up performance on
the field was the question in the minds of all spectators, commentators and
others. India have opted for Bhuvi in place of spinner R Ashwin which meant
India had two spinners, Jadeja and Chakravarthy, as against Pakistan’s three spinners.
How would this decision turn out to be was another question. However, in the
Indian innings Pakistan’s three pacers captured 6 out of the 7 Indian wickets
to fall.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar opened the Indian
innings and Pak openers Rizwan-Babar notched up 10 runs and then 9 runs in the
second over bowled by Mohammed Shami. Why Jasprit Bumrah was not preferred to
open the attack came out as another question the answer to which would obviously
come later. Bumrah did indeed bowl the third over of the Pak innings, but somewhat
the expected Indian aggression got affected a little adversely perhaps. And the
Pakistan openers succeeded in crafting a sound start as against India’s
laborious one which had the potential of becoming the turning point of the
match. After 10 overs Pakistan were nicely placed at 71/0 while India were in a
precarious situation at 60/3. Pakistan seemed to be better prepared for this
typically rare encounter much better than India, despite the former’s absence
in the IPL-2021.
And yes indeed, it turned out to be much
more than a turning point with the Pakistan openers going on undaunted crossing
the 100-run partnership mark. Surprisingly, all the elements we talked about in
the beginning went missing in the Indian attack. Not a single India bowler
being able to apply enough pressure on the openers as the desperation for a
wicket grew overpowering. We can say India missed a third spinner, but the two
spinners available also failed to impress. The ‘dew factor’ also seemed to disadvantage
India bowlers. The question of continuing with the non-bowling Pandya would be
an important question, because technically R Ashwin is a better batsman too. Then
the somewhat lesser aggression demonstrated by the Indians on the field, as we
mentioned earlier, is another crucial territory to ponder upon. The only
palpable tension combined with growing frustration was now visible only in the
Indian supporters and fans. Anyway, as we again mentioned in the beginning, it
was a treat to all cricket lovers, and the Indian supporters should not feel
depressed as to which team finally won, we must give credit to the incredible
performances of Rizwan (79 not out) and Babar (68 not out). This is Pakistan’s
first ever 10-wicket win in ICC tournament matches. However, the fact remains that
the apparently very easy roller-coaster 10-wicket victory for Pakistan turned
out to be an anti-climax.
In other
Super-12 Group-1 matches Australia labored to a win in the last over in a
low-scoring match against South Africa; in the second, one of the lowest-scoring
matches, the West Indies demonstrated one of their uniquely unpredictable
collapses folding up for just 54 runs all-out against England, and the latter
obviously won it comfortably enough; and Sri Lanka launched a glorious chase of
172 runs to beat Bangladesh. So far, in all the four Super-12 matches the chasing
side won. Sluggish pitches and the dew factor later in the night combined with
this trend is becoming a big concern for the World Cup tournament—winning the
toss seemingly becoming the ‘winning’ factor.
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