There’s a massive rivalry that is so synonymous of the Cricket World Cup where India v Pakistan on another huge occasion last night, but the winning team has always gone India’s way – having restricted Pakistan to 191 in 42 overs before they had no difficulties getting the job done in return with 20 overs to spare (30 of 50) by seven wickets (192/3). Gotta say that Pakistan started not bad with the runs they’ve built step after step, especially when they’ve got the ball rolling with their top-order card. However, they just couldn’t turn into quickfire and consistent boundaries when being tested under pressure in the 2nd half batting shift. Sadly, that’s where things have gone India’s way before Pakistan found it incredibly difficult to defend 191 on the field – despite seeing Shaheen Afridi cleared out both openers & Hasan Ali caught Virat Kohli out early with the ball.
And hats off to India who holds the most wins including last night against their arch-rivals (Pakistan) that will live on to the next World Cup edition. They did well to find the breakthrough off Pakistan’s safety first start with the bat before India turned themselves around when Pakistan tried to score big during the 2nd half of their 50-over shift. Plus, their batting was fine where Opener Rohit Sharma did well on 86, while Shreyas Iyer helped the Indian fans move on from the early disappointments of Shubman Gill & Virat Kohli by bringing them the winning runs home in such tremendous style – thanks to his own quickfire batting spell of 53. Such a huge crowd when getting the chance to see their favourite team play at a 120,000 seater Stadium in Ahmedabad along with a huge fan base elsewhere across both countries no matter the result that happens once in a while during World Cup (either way in both ODI & T20I tournaments) and/or even Champions Trophy years.
Although seeing India win all the time in this contest is like the Cricket version of the Bledisloe Cup where the Wallabies keep on losing over the last 20 + years while the All Blacks always get to take home the series trophy every year. India will now v Bangladesh on Wednesday while Pakistan take on the under pressure Aussies this Friday.
