Old story repeated once again at Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium when team India took on Pakistan in a ICC World Cup match. Indian team defeated Pakistan comfortably and register their third victory in the 2019 cricket world cup. Rohit Sharma scored brilliant hundred for Men In Blue to score big in the high pressure match against Pakistan.
Losing the toss, India put on to bat first and openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul provided solid start as both batsmen added 136 runs for the first wicket partnership. Dhawan is facing thumb injury hence Rahul was promoted to opening slot and Vijay Shankar was forced change in the playing XI for India. Rahul was fantastic and he scored 57 runs that didn’t put pressure on the middle order.
Rohit Sharma scored excellent century and it was his second ton of the cwc19. He was batting with ease and eventually he got survival from Pakistani fielders as well. Pakistan missed two opportunities to run out Rohit which he took full advantage and made 140 runs in 113 balls to build solid platform that helped Kohli and Pandya to score quick runs.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli also played key role and made 77 runs before returning to pavilion. Mohammed Amir was the most economical bowler for Men In Green as he took 3 wickets in 10 overs by spending just 47 runs. India made 336 runs for the lose of 5 wickets in 50 overs and it was a huge total for un-predicted Pakistan team.
Pakistan didn’t get good start as Imam-Ul-Haq was dismissed in the 5th over and Vijay Shankar took his wicket. The scary part was Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s injury which he got in the fifth over of match and was forced to rule out from the match. Hence Vijay came to bowl and he dismissed Imam on the very first ball of his ICC world cup debut match.
Pak team lost their way in the middle overs when Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman in successive overs to bring India back in the match. After that, all-rounder Hardik Pandya took 2 wickets on two consecutive balls as he dismissed Mohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Malik in 26th over which took Pakistan out of contest. India beat Pakistan by 89 runs as per D/L method.
This was India’s seventh victory against Pakistan in ICC Cricket World Cup and Men In Green will have to wait more to register win against Men In Blue in sports showpiece event. The path of qualifying for semi-final has become tough for Pakistan and now they have to win their rest 4 matches to through to knockout stage of 2019 world cup.
Brief Scores (Match Summary)
Toss: Pakistan won toss & chose to field
India Innings: 336/5, 50 overs (Rohit- 140 runs, Kohli- 77 runs, Amir- 3 wickets)
Pakistan Innings: 212/6, 40 overs (Fakhar- 62 runs, Babar- 48 runs, Kuldeep- 2 wickets)
Result: India won the match by 89 runs (D/L method)
Player of The Match: Rohit Sharma
