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DUBAI: Pakistan have on Sunday defeated India by 10 wickets for the first time in a World Cup fixture and ending a painful jinx that first began in 1992.
Chasing 152, captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan cruised the run-chase without any hassle as they made India’s ‘world class’ bowling attack look ordinary for once.
The duo was able to make Pakistan’s best partnership against India, breaking the previous record of 106 runs between Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik — who had made achieved the feat in 2012.
After being put in to bat, India got off to the worst start possible. Rohit Sharma was trapped LBW on 0 by Shaheen Afridi in the first over. He was gone for a golden duck. In his next over, Afridi then removed KL Rahul on 3 by disturbing his timber.
At 4, Suryakuamr Yadav played a few shots and got the scoreboard ticking but in the 6th over, he was dismissed by Hasan Ali. Eventually, India reached 36/3 after the Powerplay.
Kohli paired with aggressive Risabh Pant for 53-run stand as India recovered well after the powerplay. Pant dominated briefly, hitting two sixes off Hasan but leg-spinner Shadab Khan sent him packing. He fell after scoring a well-made 30-ball 39.
Pakistan kept Kohli quiet and things were under control after Pant’s dismissal. Ravindra Jadeja only managed to score run-a-ball 13 while Kohli reached fifty. He was dismissed in the 19th over by Shaheen for 57.
India pushed past the score to 150 after some floppy piece of fielding in the last two overs by Pakistan. Shaheen bagged figures of 3 for 31 while Hasan conceded 44, in his four overs, for his two wickets. Haris Rauf impressed in the last overs, finishing with figures of 1/25.
In return, wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan and Babar batted flawlessly from the start. The duo dominated the opposition with brilliant stroke-play and steered the run-chase without any trouble.
Shaheen was awarded player of the match for his high-class spell which set up a perfect platform for the win. The Men in Green will now take on New Zealand on October 26 at the Sharjah International Stadium.
The Green Shirts were famous for their meltdowns against their arch-rivals in World Cup matches and had lost 12 straight matches to the Men in Blue.
Line-ups are in:
Pakistan: 1 Babar Azam (capt) 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 3 Fakhar Zaman 4 Mohammad Hafeez 5 Shoaib Malik 6 Asif Ali 7 Shadab Khan 8 Imad Wasim 9 Hasan Ali 10 Haris Rauf 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi
India: 1 KL Rahul 2 Rohit Sharma 3 Virat Kohli (capt) 4 Suryakumar Yadav 5 Rishabh Pant (wk) 6 Hardik Pandya 7 Ravindra Jadeja 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 9 Varun Chakravarthy 10 Mohammed Shami 11 Jasprit Bumrah