Big Ticket Sunday | JUNE 16 | India vs Pakistan

Billion of fans across the globe were googling Manchester weather for hours. It was India vs Pakistan after all. ICC and organizers were busy ensuring that a proper cricket match takes place even if it was a curtailed game. Social media was abuzz. News channels on both sides of the border were dishing out heated debates, game plan, team selection, recent history and CT17 final in particular.

This is a game that catches the attention of other cricketing nations as well. Not sure what the tweet count was but must have been significantly high. One of my friends was just in the awe of viewership stats.

So, Sunday morning: Toss time. Sarfaraz wins the toss and elects to field. Their legend has just advised them to put runs on the board. CT2017 final, remember? Runs on the board... No, they want India to bat first. 

Let us be fair. DLS is looming in the afternoon session. Rain breaks. Wet outfield. Pitch that might not have been well prepared. 

It was not a completely wrong decision. India had a new opening pair. 

Rohit and Rahul have not opened together in a while and that showed. Almost a run out ..almost. but barring that minor scare, Rohit and Rahul were in complete control. Rohit stepped up and started hitting boundaries fluently. Amir was good and got the respect from both openers. He was dealt with effectively. No damage done. India marched on. Sarfaraz sensed his error and his body language started rubbing on others as well. Spinners were not effective. Runs kept flowing. Wahab got the breakthrough but Virat joined hitman. Rohit was constructing his innings calmly and smartly. Virat played second fiddle, accumulated runs. Rohit reached his hundred. Commentators, fans started to look at double hundred. Not to be. 140, still a big hundred. 

Pandya in. Remember CT2017 final?

His quick little innings kept the flow. Virat too was in full flow. Okay so another centurion in a WC game. Not to be. 

It was Amir again.   Remember CT2017 final?

India ended up with 336 after a rain break and after 50 overs.

Pakistan were looking at big total and rain threat (or may be rain to their rescue). They had to deal with Bumrah and Bhuvaneshvar.

They started alright. Bhuvaneshvar got injured and walked off. Good news for Pakistan. He is a mean bowler and not easy to score off. India would have to find some one to gulp his 7 overs and 2 deliveries. Virat brought Shankar to get rid of 2 deliveries and Shankar got rid of their opener.

That brought Babar Azam to the crease. He started building with Zaman.

Yes, the left handed opener Zaman who played brilliantly in CT2017 final. remember?

He was looking good. Might not be as fluent as he would have liked to but was scoring alright. The task ahead was challenging though.

Virat brought in his spinners. Kuldeep removed Babar Azam and then it was all downhill. To me that has been the ball of this world cup. What a delivery!

Pandya came in and chipped in too. Rain intervened but it was too late for Pakistan. The look on the face of Shoaib Malik said it all. 7-0 was stamped all over. 

The talk of 7-0 and CT 2017 final will go on and on until these 2 teams meet again whether in Champions Trophy or CWC 2023. This must be looked at as just a game of cricket.

Let us accept it India is a better, fitter and more settled side in this tournament than most. This is a simple fact. It will take some doing to stop them. India vs NZ would have been interesting. India vs England should be an exciting contest.

Pakistan are not out of this tournament yet but they have to play really smart and solid cricket to stay alive.  

Amir was the only bright spot for them in this game and he almost got dropped. Remember?

Cricket is a funny old game and a great leveler. I always like to learn about human nature and human reaction to the final outcome and lessons learned in the process.

A word about social media reactions after the game. While some really hilarious tweets from Pakistani Twitterati made me laugh. Some serious humour. It was not reciprocated in the same currency of humour though. Again, some exceptions to the above as well. Few nasty comments from fans of losing side vs few gracious tweets from winning side.

My personal opinion is that it is best to enjoy the rivalry with the quality of cricket that it delivers. One team will win and hence the other side will get defeated. We can still be humans and react like humans.

Humour must be appreciated. I expect that to happen in future as well in India Pakistan games . The banter the fun the humour the “remember? “ jibes  😊 Same can not  be said about India Bangladesh games ..given how these 2 cricketing nations have now developed a rivalry in past 6-7 years.  That will be cracker of a game.