India has never lost in an ODI World Cup match against Pakistan. India has had an overwhelming number of dominating performances against Pakistan in the ODI WC. India vs. Pakistan 2019 was the 22nd match of the tournament. India won by 89 runs in that match.
Due to rain, the target for Pakistan was reduced to 302 runs in 40 overs. Pakistan simply could not handle the pressure. Pakistan’s curse has continued even in the latest World Cup, which they are looking to reverse in the upcoming World Cup of 2023.
Ground facts and setting of the match
Pakistan won the toss and elected to field first. Pakistan’s main power has always been its bowling. For the Indian Cricket team, it’s batting. The ground was Manchester. Pakistan may not have known that an overwhelming majority of the matches were won by batting first. It’s 36 matches for batting first and only 16 matches for bowling first.
The ground is safe haven for batting-focused teams. The average score of Manchester is 322 runs. One could safely assume the result of the match. In the 2011 World Cup, India was also on a win streak of two matches when they faced Pakistan. With all the good signs on their side, India did not disappoint at all against their arch-rivals.
Indian Batting
The opening pair for the Indian cricket team was KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. They had a phenomenal start for the Indian cricket team. India did not lose any wickets for the first 136 runs and 23.5 overs.
KL Rahul made 57 runs in 78 balls before getting caught by Babar Azam while Wahab Riaz was bowling. However, after that, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli took the helm. They had a partnership of 98 runs, and when Rohit Sharma’s wicket was lost, he had already made 140 runs in just 113 balls.
Virat Kohli then proceeded to pair up with Hardik Pandya and then with MS Dhoni. Virat Kohli played a crucial innings of 77 runs, and after all these, India had made 336/5 in total.
Apart from Mohammad Amir, no Pakistani bowler could put up a meaningful resistance. He had 3 wickets and an econ. The rate is 4.70, which is good considering the score. Other than that, all the other bowlers were very costly and never appeared as a genuine threat.
Pakistan’s batting
After the rain delay, the new score set was 302 runs in 40 overs. The RR was around 7.00, but on a good day, it can be achieved within 40 overs with 10 wickets in hand. But Pakistan’s batting has always suffered, especially against India.
The opening pair for Pakistan was Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq. Imam-ul-Haq went back to the pavilion with just 7 runs in his name. The next partnership of Fakhar Zaman with Babar Azam was showing hope to Pakistani fans. They made 104 runs. Babar Azam was bowled by Kuldeep Yadav just 2 runs away from his half-century. Fakhar Zaman also gave up after a short while.
After this partnership, the domino began to fall. The batsmen get out in rapid intervals. However, an unlikely resistance was made by Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan. Imad Wasim scored 46 runs, while Shadab Khan scored 20 runs.
Bijay Shankar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Hardik Pandya, each of these players got two wickets. India bowlers, apart from Chahal, were economical as well. This careful version of bowling and phenomenal fielding made it very hard for Pakistan to score the necessary runs.
None of the Pakistani performances was enough to break their long-standing curse. They could only score 212/6 after 40 overs. India won once again.
Man of the match
Man of the match award was given to Rohit Sharma for his stellar performance against Pakistan. In his innings, he had scored 14 boundaries and 3 over-boundaries, each better than the previous one. His strike rate was also 123.09, which is phenomenal for every format. Especially considering that he did not have to go to that length.
Match Reception
This match was the most watched match in the history of cricket. Around 223 million people around the world were watching the match live. Undoubtedly, many of them were Pakistani fans.
Pakistani Twitter was enraged over its batsmen for poor batting performance. Some of the fans were visibly upset by their team’s performance in the World Cup. On the other hand, Indian cricket fans were overwhelmingly happy with the grand performance just put on by their players. Many Indian celebrities and former players tweet greetings and salutations for the players.
India vs. Pakistan matches are part of an ongoing history. So far, in the ODI format, India has been having the better part of it. This is a place of pride that they are yet to lose a match against their long-lasting rivals.
Although Pakistan has defeated India in the t20 WC, the next version of the WC will pit two of the greatest cricketing nations against one another to find out who will still reign in the greatest rivalry on earth.
