Ahmedabad: It’s eight out of eight for India against Pakistan. In what can be called as a gift for Navratri festival — which begins from Sunday — for crores of their countrymates, the Indian team humiliated the neighbouring nation for an emphatic win at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday and continued its perfect record against their arch-rivals in the ODI World Cup.
Before this game, India and Pakistan have played each other seven times since their first meeting at the 1992 World Cup and each time India had emerged victorious. Ahmedabad was no exception. The near capacity crowd at the 1.32-lakh capacity Modi Stadium got what they wanted as they witnessed India continuing their winning streak against Pakistan.
The prospect of a close contest between these two bitter opponents proved to be a damp squib because of an exceptional all-round performance by the Indian team, who looked superior to their Pakistani counterparts in every aspect of the game.
First, Indian bowlers bowled brilliantly to bundle out Pakistan for a paltry 191 runs in 42.5 overs. The sensational collapse, in which they lost last eight wickets for mere 36 runs, meant it was Pakistan’s second lowest score against India in ODI World Cup after 180 all-out back in 1999.
The fact that five Indian bowlers – Jaspreet Bumrah (2-19), Mohammad Siraj (2-50), Hardik Pandya (2-34), Kuldeep Yadav (2-35) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-38) – shared two wickets apiece emphasised their total dominance over Pakistan batters.
More than the hara-kiri committed by the Pakistani batters, it was the superb bowling by the Indians that did them in. The Indian bowlers were just too good for them. They tormented the Pak batters with tight line and length and produced some amazing deliveries to bamboozle the opposing side.
The low target was never going to be a challenge for the strong Indian batting line-up, as they smashed the hapless Pak bowling to all corners of the stadium to achieve the victory in 30.3 overs and with as many as 117 balls to spare.
Captain Rohit Sharma led the way with a scintillating innings of 86 runs in 63 balls, studded with six fours and six maximums. Shreyas Iyer (53 runs in 62 balls) and KL Rahul (19) then steered India to a resounding win.
Earlier, Sharma won the toss and elected to field on a pitch of variable bounce, where the odd ball kept low. He brought in Shubhman Gill, who missed the first two matches because of dengue, in place of Ishan Kishan in the team.
After Pakistan lost their openers Abdullah Shafique (20) and Imam-Ul-Haq (36) within 73 runs, skipper Babar Azam (50) and Mohammad Rizwan (49) made a 82-run partnership for the third wicket. At 155 for 2 in about 30 years, things looked good for Pakistan for posting a good total on the board.
But everything changed in a flash, as Azam was bowled trying to cut Siraj and the ball went on to hit the off-stump. Pakistan’s innings thereafter collapsed like a pack of cards.
Bumrah, as effervescent and lethal as ever, produced two gems to send back Rizwan and Shadab Khan, who were all at sea playing his deadly in-cutters and were bowled.
In between, Yadav trapped Saud Shakeel (6) plumb before the wicket and bowled Iftikhar Ahmed (4) in quick succession to kill any chance of Pakistan’s recovery.
