Pakistan skipper Babar Azam was delighted after his team defeated India comprehensively by 10 wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
This is Pakistan’s first-ever win over India in a World Cup match as they created history. Azam gave credit to the collective effort of the team for the side’s big win.
Pakistan got off to a fine start as Shaheen Shah Afridi rocked India’s top order and dismissed both the openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul – in the first three overs. Hassan Ali then accounted for Suryakumar Yadav as India was reduced to 31-3 after the powerplay overs.
Virat Kohli scored a fighting fifty while Pant contributed with 39 runs but India could only manage a below-par score of 151 runs. On the other hand, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were able to hit the ground running and looked in no trouble at all during their opening alliance.
Pakistan won without even conceding a single wicket and both Azam and Rizwan were able to get the crucial boundaries whenever the required run-rate inched towards the nine-run mark. Rizwan scored an unbeaten knock of 79 runs while Azam contributed with 68 as Pakistan chased down the total of 152 within 18 overs.
Babar Azam thus became the first Pakistan captain to win a World Cup match against India. Ergo, Pakistan was able to put paid to their 12-match losing streak against the arch-rivals.
Babar Azam said in the post-match presentation, “This was the team’s effort, and the early wickets were very helpful. It gave us a lot of confidence and our spinners were very good as well. We applied our plans and got the results. We, the openers, kept it simple and built a partnership and because the wicket was getting better so we just wanted to keep batting till the end, which we did. It won’t get easier just because we beat India. We will take the confidence, but we’re taking it one match at a time, and there’s a long way to go in the tournament. We prepared well, and just kept the history out of our mind. We needed quality practice, and warm-up matches, and even our domestic tournament and those games gave us a lot of confidence”.
Pakistan will look to carry the same impetus in the coming matches and they couldn’t have asked for a better start. The Babar Azam-led team will next face New Zealand at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
