KARACHI: At the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad where every Pakistani boundary was treated with pindrop silence by a partisan crowd, India came out all guns blazing.
Pakistan, in contrast, didn’t even bring proper knives to the gunfight.
The result: India cruised to a seven-wicket triumph with a whopping 117 balls to spare as they leapfrogged to the pole position on the World Cup points table with three wins in a row.
For Pakistan, the huge loss — their eighth in a World Cup game against arch-rivals India — comes as a big wake-up call as it has the potential of derailing their title campaign in the ten-nation spectacle. Though the Pakistanis are very much in contention for a place in the semi-finals with two wins and a loss, their meek surrender in the big match against India has raised a big question mark on their chances against top-flight teams like New Zealand, South Africa, England and Australia, which they have to play in the coming weeks.
Things were looking set for Pakistan going into Saturday’s blockbuster against India. They had tamed the Dutch and had overcome early hiccups to beat Sri Lanka by putting up the biggest run-chase in World Cup history. Their diehard fans believed they were good enough to end the World Cup jinx against India by beating the old foes for the first time in the history of the 50-over extravaganza.
But Pakistan came unprepared to a battle where odds were heavily stacked against them. Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur aptly underlined the fact the atmosphere at the stadium was completely in favour of India. Due to India’s rigid visa stance towards Pakistan, there were no Pakistani fans. There was just a sea of blue.
Babar Azam lost the toss and his Indian counterpart Rohit Sharma expectedly opted to bowl. It was a good toss to win.
Pakistan managed a reasonably good start but their batters were unable to dominate the Indian bowlers even as they put up 155-2 and looked set to post a decent total, somewhere between 280-300.
Openers Imam-ul Haq and Abdullah Shafiq failed to capitalise on the starts. Abdullah was undone by Muhammad Siraj and the low bounce, while Imam threw away his wicket playing a bit of wild drive. The seasoned duo of Babar and Mohammad Rizwan, whose unbeaten ton guided Pakistan against Sri Lanka, spent a lot of time on the wicket but could never really break the shackles against a tight Indian bowling line-up comprising Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja. It was surprising to see Rizwan giving too much respect to the spin duo of Yadav and Jadeja.
There was little use of the feet by the batters on the low and slow wicket, leaving Pakistan with too many dot balls. Pakistan, it is understood, had hoped to post 350. But the batters showed little intent to get there. However, it turned out later that the dot balls were the least of Pakistan’s problems. In one of the most dramatic collapses even by Pakistani standards, the Greens lost their last eight wickets for just 36 runs within a span of 80 balls. Their fate was sealed once they were bowled out for 191 runs in 42.5 overs.
Barring a couple of stunning wicket-taking deliveries from Bumrah, the rest of the wickets fell due to poor shot selection by the Pakistanis. It was apparent that the Pakistani batters choked in the high-pressure encounter. The bowlers were hardly any better as Rohit Sharma hit a commanding 86 from just 63 balls to extend India’s winning World Cup run against Pakistan. Shaheen Afridi took 2-36 but hardly looked at his brilliant best. Fellow pacers Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali also failed to impress much. The spin duo of Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz looked completely toothless as Sharma and Shreyas Iyer (53 not out) batted with complete disdain.
Mickey Arthur later blamed the fact that there was hardly any Pakistani support in the stadium full of Indian fans. But he and the Pakistan team should have been ready for the partisan crowd. It turned out they weren’t.
Mickey Arthur took a dig at cricket’s governing body, claiming the absence of support for his team in Ahmedabad’s 132,000-capacity stadium made the occasion look like “a BCCI event” rather than an international marquee match-up.
Pakistan fans were effectively banned from the ground after failing to secure visas to cross the border, leaving the arena awash with the blue shirts of India supporters as the hosts coasted to a seven-wicket victory.
Arthur’s team were backed only by a handful of expatriate Pakistan fans who had made the trip from the United States and United Kingdom.
Asked how much a factor the partisan crowd was against a “timid” Pakistan team, Arthur replied: “It didn’t seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. “It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) event.” Arthur accused the public address system organisers of favouring India by refusing to play “Dil Dil Pakistan”, the nation’s unofficial anthem.
“I didn’t hear Dil Dil Pakistan coming through too often tonight. “So yes, that does play a role, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse.”
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