Pakistan’s authoritative victory has turned them from tournament hopefuls to chief contenders for the coveted World Cup title virtually overnight.
Babar Azam and his team-mates woke up at their Dubai Festival City hotel on Monday morning with a big monkey off their backs. On Sunday night in front of a packed Dubai International Cricket Stadium and more than a billion fans watching the ICC T20 World Cup game around the globe, they achieved a cherished target which no other Pakistan team had achieved in history – beat India in a World Cup clash. And what a way to do it!
Young pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi softened up India by rattling the high-profile opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul with the new ball and later Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan – the steely combination of Pakistani openers – hit flawless, unbeaten knocks to shepherd Pakistan to a perfect 10-wicket triumph.
In the world of sports, Pakistan’s drubbing of India in Dubai was far more stunning that even Liverpool’s 5-0 thrashing of old rivals Manchester United, also on Sunday night.
Entering the World Cup as one of the least prepared sides following several turbulent weeks back at home, Pakistan seemed to have little hope against the fancied Indian line-up.
Both current form and past track record made India the clear favourites. The mere fact that Pakistan had never beaten India in a World Cup game in 12 attempts made their fans lose hope. But it turned out to be lucky 13 for the Greenshirts.
However, luck played little or no role as Pakistan gave a near perfect performance both with the bat and ball after Babar won a crucial toss and asked India to bat first.
Pakistan’s game plan was simple: get early wickets with the new ball and keep India on the back foot in the extremely important power-play overs.
Everything went according to the script for Pakistan as Shaheen bowled a series of unplayable deliveries to send Sharma and Rahul back to the dugout. India never really recovered despite a classy fifty from skipper Virat Kohli.
If Shaheen was Pakistan’s bowling star then the likes of Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf played the perfect supporting cast. In the end India could manage 151, a decent total but far from enough for a Pakistan side that was hungry to rewrite history.
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