A briliant century from Rohit Sharma, and some inspired bowling from Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya saw India beat Pakistan by 89 runs (D/L method) in their ICC World Cup 2019 group stage encounter at Manchester on Sunday (June 16).
Chasing 337 to win, Pakistan were cruising at 117-1 after 21 overs before double strikes from Kuldeep and Hardik Pandya reduced them to 129-5 and all but broke the back of Pakistan’s resistance.
A rain lengthy interruption at the end of the 35th over meant that when play resumed, Pakistan needed 136 from 5 overs according to the revised playing conditions which set them a target of 302 in 40 overs, meaning India had no trouble recording their seventh straight win in World Cups against their arch-rivals.
It didn’t look like ending this way at one point. Pakistan’s openers had started steadily and would have fancied their chances of batting deep after Bhuvneshwar Kumar was forced off the field with tightness in his hamstring.
However, Vijay Shankar came on to bowl the remaining two balls of the 5th over and struck on his very first ball, trapping Imam-ul-Haq plumb in front of the stumps.
Undeterred, Fakhar Zaman put together a solid 104-run stand with Babar Azam although Babar was lucky to survive an LBW appeal after India decided not to review, with replays suggested he would have been out.
That partnership finally came to an end when Kuldeep deceived Babar with a well-bowled googly that ended up crashing into his stumps, a dismissal that turned the game on its head.
The Chinaman accounted for Fakhar in his next over, the opener attempting a sweep shot but only top edging one that was easily collected by Yuzvendra Chahal at short fine leg.
Pandya then dismissed Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik in successive balls, the former giving a simple catch to Shankar at deep square leg and the latter chopping the ball onto his stumps for a golden duck.
Sarfaraz Ahmed and Imad Wasim scratched around for a 36-run stand that was ended when the former was bowled by Shankar.
Rain interrupted proceedings at the end of Shankar’s over and by the time the match resumed, the result was never in doubt.