India pocket Pak, as usual

| | Old Trafford (Manchester)
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India pocket Pak, as usual

Monday, 17 June 2019 | PNS | Old Trafford (Manchester)

India pocket Pak, as usual

Men in Blue win by 89 runs on D/L as Pak finish at 212/6 in rain cut 40 overs

Here goes the Manchester Agreement of 2019 between India and Pakistan: No points to Pakistan. Two to India. Game on India, game out Pakistan, well almost but for eleventh hour math if permutations come into play in the scramble for a semi-final berth. Pressure all Pakistan’s. Jubilation all India’s. Victory all India’s. Defeat all Pakistan’s. Charge all India’s Crumble all Pakistan’s.

Pakistan is used to such stringent terms, especially in a World Cup where it continues to struggle to get its voice heard over India’s despite seven editions in the bag now. Not that they signed on the dotted line without a fight this time, but it was short-lived, heaving and jittery, battling inevitability of defeat with that very singular fear which their Premier Imran Khan had warned them against.

He had also warned them against electing to bowl but skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed decided to ignore it, lured by the possible juice in the atmosphere and the pitch, but not being ably assisted by his famous pace battery till the death overs. That allowed India to scamper to a handsome 336-5, on a lazily elegant century by Rohit Sharma, his second in the tournament, a quiet almost unnoticed 77 by skipper Kohli before he walked to what he thought was an edge to the keeper, and a solid 57 by KL Rahul who opened in the absence of an injured Shikhar Dhawan and made a mark with his half ton.

The three top of the order gentlemen of the game not just kept the Amir-Ali-Wahab battery quiet in the first and second spells but also laid the foundation of victory much before Amir got his act together in the death overs to take the Big Three (Pandya at 26, Dhoni at 1 and Kohli at 77). But by then the dye had been cast and Kedar and Shankar (15 off 15) had the job of merely navigating the last two overs, which would have otherwise been overly fertile had Kohli not walked.

But these are just side stories to the main fable of India’s balanced show gaining stellar proportions with all the three disciplines working in tandem to buy some of that unbreachable Ambuja cement for victory. India has been trotting with their strategies, self-belief and team spirit just as the skipper ordered it and good news is as they go deeper into the tournament these tenets are gaining longevity, professionalism and recommendation letters.

By the time the rain came again, cutting the game to 40 overs in which Pakistan was required to score 302 runs, as in 136 runs from five overs through the books of the unloved Duckworth and Lewis formula, Pakistan had already given up and the stands had started emptying out after singing “badhey chalo, chaley chalo” for Team India. Pakistan posted 212/5 in Final analysis.

Call it the El Classico of cricket as Kevin Pietersen did, or a Federer-Nadal Grand Slam Final or the Ashes of the ODIs, for Kohli and his boys it was the proverbial bee out of their, should we say, beards?

At 7 points from 4 games, one lost to rain, that’s more than a snazzy drive to Southampton, Afghanistan and more booties to bag.

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