The highly anticipated rivalry took place when India and Pakistan locked horns in Dubai for the opening encounter for both sides in the T20 World Cup. Pakistan, after winning the toss, put India in to bat on a slowish surface. Pakistan seamers were on the money right from the word go as their young left-armer breathed fire in his opening spell. Shaheen Shah Afridi got the ball to hoop back in late to the Indian openers, dismissing both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul rather cheaply.
It wasn’t long before India’s number four Suryakumar Yadav walked back to the huts after a brief knock of 11 off 8. The Men in Blue were reeling at 31-3, and needed to consolidate after a poor start. Skipper Virat Kohli and Keeper Rishabh Pant did just that and managed to get the scoreboard ticking. Kohli looked busy at the crease, rotating the strike and putting the odd ball away to the fence while his partner at the other end was clearing the rope in his trademark one-handed style.
It was the leggie Shadab Khan who broke that partnership, dismissing Pant for a well made 39 off 30 deliveries. The Pakistani pacers made full use of the conditions and used the change-of-pace to perfection. Even an express speedster like Haris Rauf who can touch 150 kmph consistently, put his ego aside, understood his role and used the change of pace deliveries with wonderful precision of length. This allowed his side to keep the strangle-hold on the Indian side through the middle overs.
Virat Kohli acted as the glue that held the innings together for India, but was dismissed soon after getting to a well-complied fifty. India ended up with 151/7 on the board, which looked like a par score, but a commendable effort after being 31/3 inside the powerplay.
In reply, Pakistan got off to a rollicking start. Their openers, Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan are known to take the game to the opposition in this format of the game, and they certainly did that. The ease with which they countered the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar was exceptional to see. Babar Azam was at his conventional best, whereas Rizwan took the attack to the opposition, clearing the fence on 3 ocassions and batting at a tremendous strike rate of 143.
India just couldn’t seem to find the answer to breaking the partnership as it grew larger with every over. Dew was also not helping India’s cause, and it just made the wicket a little easier to bat on as suddenly it wasn’t gripping as much anymore. Even Varun Chakravarthy couldn’t make use of the long fences as Rizwan pulled him for 2 huge sixes over midwicket off the back-foot in a single over. Pakistan were cruising along and at no stage did they look in discomfort or give any chances, or even half-chances to India.
The way Pakistan constructed their innings was rather impressive because there were no rash shots, just proper text-book cricketing shots that fetched them all the runs. That sensibility is what pulled them through and made them win the game over their arch-nemesis by a massive margin of 10 wickets. This is a huge win for Pakistan and will give them the momentum and a healthy NRR that they need going forward in the tournament. The short nature of the tournament would mean that Pakistan are certainly in contention for the semi finals, and might just pull off something like they did in the Champions Trophy back in 2017.
-Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 