October 14 2023, 2023 ICC World Cup PAKISTAN v INDIA ,
The Historical day finally arrived with many milestones and hopes to take cricket to the Olympics. Pakistan v India in the ICC 2023 Cricket World Cup Match number 12. The venue is at the very oversized (world’s largest) stadium in Ahmedabad, India. Much more fan capacity than Melbourne, Australia & Calcutta, India.
Today, the stadium is full and resplendent in the sky-blue colors of Team India. The playing field is a lush light shade of green. From every angle the crowd in the stand is a visible sea of blue. And, except for the dark green uniform worn by Team Pakistan players, there was an absence of dark green colors in the stadium seats. At least none were seen. This absence may have been due to the late visa issues that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has been complaining about.
India favorites against Pakistan with the clean 7 – 0 record in the world cups, won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first. Although the pitch appeared to have a hint of grass on the top, and by all accounts this track does look like a track that has more for batters, not the bowlers. Pakistan’s opening batters Abdullah Shaffique and Imam-ul -Haq started their innings with confidence. They appeared fully focused, heads and eyes, unhurried and relaxed. Surprisingly, the Indian opening quick bowlers did not appear to have any fielders in the traditional slip positions during initial power play.
Several boundaries were struck before the first single run scored in the fourth over. Abdullah (20 runs) was the first wicket to fall in the 8th over, with the score at 41 runs. Imam-ul-Haq (36 runs) was out in over number 13, the score was 73 runs for loss of two wickets. At this point in the match, the most awaited pair of Pakistan batters, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan came together. As expected, stability was seen with these two batters. Unfortunately for Pakistan, Azam (50 runs) was the first to get out bowled by a beauty from Siraj. The partnership of 82 runs ended with the Pakistan total at 155 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. There followed a sequence of seven Pakistan batters, including Rizwan (49 runs) bowled by another beauty by Bumrah, rest of the batters, who added only 36 more runs between them. Pakistan’s final innings score was 191. This downfall and meagre run total of the Pakistan innings was due to the brilliant and steady line, length, and swing movement off the pitch for the Indian bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravindra Jadeja, all of whom claimed 2 wickets each. Pakistan must accept their own contribution to this shaming. Theirs was a pathetic batting effort from a team with a challenging record as not a single six and the inning did not last 50 overs.
When India batted, they scored runs at a rapid rate of 6.29 per over. Captain Rohit Sharma (86 runs) struck six 4s and six 6s. Shreyas Iyer ably contributed 53 runs not out, and along with Sharma, India batters took full advantage of Pakistan’s 5 very tamed bowlers. Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli did not contribute many runs this time. India scored 192 runs for 3 wickets in just 30.3 overs to defeat Pakistan for the 8th time in World Cup ODI matches. India overpowered again to improve their record 8 – 0 against Pakistan in world cups..
Content credt – Dennis Heath,
