Well, it has to be Cricket to pull me out of the dungeons of laziness and to put me in the zone of writing. Though over the years like everything the connection and passion towards the game has changed too. Reasons can be various. Too much of Cricket that too the shorter format is definitely one of them. The gradual retiring of the Legends with whom the connection was so strong also contributes to this, around 2 eras of Cricketers. And the 3rd era consisting of Kohli and Rohit are perhaps playing their last World Cup. Still the spark ignites occasionally when we have matches of some magnitude and a match between India and Pakistan in an ODI World Cup has to be on top of this list.
The Menu
So we have an India vs Pak on the menu today, which is definitely mouth-watering. At least this World Cup. I wouldn’t have said the same thing for the last 2 that happened in 2015 and 2019. India had continued to up their game in the last decade across formats and were way ahead of the in-process Pakistan then. So any hype around an India-Pak match was just a means to attract unnecessary attention. This time, it is slightly different. Though not a match of equals, Pakistan has definitely improved as a team in the last 2-3 years boasting of a strong pace attack (what’s new there 🙂 ) and 2 batting stalwarts in Babar and Rizwan. Owing to this consistency, they were almost No.1 ranked team coming to the World Cup, getting replaced by India only at the last moment in Asia Cup. So even though India are favourites, expect it to be a tough match tomorrow!
The Memoirs
India vs Pakistan is definitely an emotional and nostalgic moment. Memories flood in a flash and it appears that these matches happened only yesterday. Especially the ones in 1990s and the one in 2003.
1992 was the first time India played Pakistan in a World Cup. The Bets were high on them to play in the Final of 1987 at Eden Gardens when both of them surprisingly lost their Semi-Final matches against Australia and England. In 1992 though history started and it started with a bang. The Pakistan of the 90s was a good team and many times better than India. They showed their class and hunger in this World Cup by eventually being the Champions. But India trumped them in their league match and the talk of the town that day was the duel between and angry Miandad and an irritating chirpy Kiran More behind the stumps.
1996 too was a blockbuster between these two sides. The intensity of the match was very high. They were playing the quarter final at Bangalore and it was a tense match all throughout. India was victorious again and the limelight was stolen by Venkatesh Prasad for his send-off to Aamer Sohail after bowling him. It became a viral incident and videos of this can be found on Youtube even now.
1999 was more of a consolation win for India in Super Six after its dismal performance against Australia. They were already on their way out, so beating the eventual finalist and that too Pakistan gave some joy to us Indians. Pakistan was a strong side then too. Prasad was the hero again here as he took a 5-wicket haul to win the match for India.
2003 was and is perhaps the best match these two teams have played at a World Cup. (finger crossed for 2023 to upstage it) It was a match of equals. The intensity was high as usual. There were punches, counter-punches all through-out the game. Saeed Anwar made a majestic century to register a high score for Pakistan. There are/were few players who love(d) to play against India and Saeed Anwar was among the top ones in that list. More often than not he feasted on India’s bowling. His highest score of 195 was against India. But we had a player who was thinking about this match for a month. Sachin Tendulkar!! He had scripted the match in his mind much before it was actually played. It was a matter of just executing that script and he did that in style. From ball 1, he was a player with a mission. Sachin’s 98 that day against the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar and Shoaib Akhtar has to be one of his top knocks ever. India won the match somewhat comfortably but it was a treat to watch both teams and a big thanks to them to give us Cricket fans a memory forever.
2007 was a virtual match. India and Pakistan were put in groups in a manner that they will play the next stage but both of them had a surprise exit after losing to Bangladesh and Ireland respectively. The forecasted Super 8 match between India and Pakistan was sold out and unfortunately the fans had to watch an inconsequential Ireland vs Bangladesh.
2011 was a glory before glory moment for India. It was the last but one hurdle for them to win the World Cup after a gap of 28 years and they did it with a good amount of luck (read Sachin’s 5 dropped catches). But the result is what mattered. We had reached the finals and India vs Pakistan at World Cup read 5-0.
2015 & 2019 as I mentioned earlier weren’t as exciting in terms of India-Pakistan clashes. The results were more or less predicted. Not many memories too except for the Stats folks with Kohli hitting a century in 2015 and Rohit in 2019.
2023
It will be a blatant lie if I say that let’s hope for a good contest between the teams and let the better one win. As an Indian fan, we just want to win no matter if it is an easy win or a tense finish. Easier the better for us, else our hearts will start pounding and we have a month of Cricket left. So we need to keep our hearts healthy. So Cheers for India!!!
Indiaaaa!! Indiaaaa!! (Definitely not Bharattt Bharattt 😉 )
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