CWC 2023: India thrash Pakistan, win marquee match by 7 wickets
October 14, 2023 09:02 pm
After reaching seventh heaven in 2019, India take one more step toward cloud nine as they bring up an eighth successive victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in ODI World Cups.
The 2023 ICC World Cup hosts thrashed their neighbours, with a dominating win of seven wickets, in the presence of a crowd of over 100,000 inside the stadium and millions watching worldwide.
With a pretty small target of 192 runs needed to be chased down, India got off to an absolute flier with both openers racking up the boundaries. Shubman Gill announced his return with a fast start but fell soon enough.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma picked up from where he left off against Afghanistan and got the hosts off to a flying start in their chase after Pakistan collapsed to 191 all out. He scored 39 runs off 24 balls in a 56-run stand with Virat Kohli, which itself came in just 42 balls. Shubman Gill made a bright start in his first innings since recovering from dengue. He scored 16 in 11 balls before falling to Shaheen Afridi. Kohli was also looking good before falling to Hasan Ali, leaving Shreyas Iyer in the middle with Rohit.
Rohit went on to miss out on a second consecutive century in this tournament, eventually falling for 86 off 63. Shreyas Iyer hit the winning runs with a four and in the process, he managed to get to a half century as well.
Earlier, India staged a stunning comeback in the middle over to bowl Pakistan out for 191. Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja picked two wickets each as Pakistan lost eight wickets from 155/2 for just 39 runs. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were in the middle of a partnership that looked rather threatening for India after two timely strikes from Mohammed Siraj and Hardik Pandya got rid of the Pakistan openers.
But once Siraj had the Pakistan captain playing on, ending the 82-run stand, Pakistan”s wheels came off. Kuldeep had Saud Shakeel out LBW before bowling Iftikhar Ahmed around his legs. Shortly after Bumrah bowled a peach to dismiss Rizwan and then subsequently removed Shadab Khan in the next over. The collapse continued for Pakistan and they were eventually all out for 191.
