It was a fascinating game of cricket and the Pakistan side never looked like winning a game against India at the competitive level. Having won all the world cup matches against the arch rivals Pakistan, the morale of the Indian side was rather high in the Champions Trophy match at Birmingham on Sunday. Having a stranglehold over Pakistan, Indian team played to a plan and achieved a huge win by D/L method against our old enemy. Pakistan played into our hands by asking India to bat on a placid batting wicket. By putting up a huge total in 48 overs team India was in the driver’s seat straightaway. Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan gave a rollicking start and well sustained by Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh. Hardik Pandya played a punishing role and hit 20 runs of 6 balls to put up a stiff target.
India began their title defence at ICC Champions Trophy with a 124-run win by D/L method over Pakistan in their first game of the Champions Trophy 2017. Indian bowlers took nine Pakistan wickets for 164 runs to complete the win as Wahab Riaz did not come out to bat. Umesh Yadav claimed three wickets while Pandya and Jadeja took two wickets each. Earlier, India were invited to bat first by Pakistan and after a slow start, openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan put on 136-run stand before Dhawan was dismissed for 68. Then Kohli took over and with Rohit carried on the innings. The Indian innings was interrupted twice but Rohit looked good for a hundred. Unfortunately, he was run-out for 91 as his bat remained in air, even though he had made it to his crease. But Yuvraj smashed 53 runs off 32 balls to take India closer to 300 before he was dismissed. Kohli, who had struggled throughout for timing, suddenly looked marvellous. He remained unbeaten on 81. Hardik Pandya hit three six in the final over as India posted 319/3 in 48 overs.
Millions of supporters watched the game as teams fight for national pride at Edgbaston. Due to diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan, the two teams rarely lock horns against each other barring an International Cricket Council (ICC) event, and the hotly fought battle has over the years drawn a wide range of audience. For almost 18 years, wars stood in between the two outfits playing each other in a bilateral series until the ice was broken in 1978, but even today matches are few and far between. The two sides have not played a bilateral series since 2012-2013, and India have used to juggle with the idea without an end to “cross border terrorism”, which essentially means militant incursions along the disputed Kashmir border. Not only will a victory for either side mean taking a huge step towards the semi-finals in a four-team group which also has Sri Lanka and South Africa, it will also be a diplomatic point-scoring in terms of the stand-off between the two parties.
But for an odd one wicket defeat in the 2014 Asia Cup match, Team India dominated Pakistan throughout in the cricketing field and a win by Pakistan is not even imagined at this level. Pakistan played pathetic cricket facing a huge total during rain interruptions and surrendered meekly in the end. They were beaten like a pulp in the end.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
