CWC2023 : India thrashes Pakistan after great bowling & Rohit masterclass

 

In 1992, history was written by Mohammad Azharuddin's team in Melbourne.  On October 14, 2023, Rohit Sharma's team added the eighth chapter to that history.  Another World Cup and another loss for Pakistan.  Pakistan could not take advantage against India in Ahmedabad as usual in 22 yards of the World Cup.  Their innings ended on 191 runs.  In reply, India scored 192 runs for 3 wickets in 30.3 overs to  win by 7 wickets in style .

 Batting first, Pakistan set a target of 192 runs to win against India.  Pakistan's run against India in the World Cup is the third lowest.  With an easy target to win, Rohit started in an aggressive mood.  Rohit hit Shaheen Shah Afridi for a first ball four.  Shubman Gill, who made his debut in the World Cup on this day, was also encouraged by that.  Although he did not get big runs, his innings of 16 runs from 11 balls did not show the impression of Dengue's weakness and Gill looked in sublime touch .  Shaheen got him out quickly but Pakistan did not benefit.  At the other end of the wicket, Rohit was still in the mood for the Afghanistan match.  After defeating the Afghans, Rohit played a dazzling  innings of 86 runs off 63 balls. His innings was full of breathtaking shots that included six  glorious sixes . Rohit didn't let the match slip away even though he missed a hundred in front of 130,000 spectators.  Rohit ruled the bowlers and hit 6 fours and 6 sixes. His sixes included terrific pull shots , flicks , lofted extra cover drives , shot straight down the ground that had the crowd on its feet as they were witnessing a special innings. 

  On this day, however, Virat Kohli's (16) bat did not get runs though he started well .  However  Shreyas Iyer batted with responsibility.   Shreyas played an unbeaten innings of 53 runs off 62 balls and hit 3 fours and 2 sixes.  At the end Lokesh got Rahul with him.  He ended up not out scoring 18 runs. However both Rahul and Iyer could have tried to finish the match few overs earlier to improve the net run rate .

Earlier Rohit won the toss and urged Pakistan to bat first.  Babar's team did not make a bad start to the innings.  But the end was done in a very ordinary way.  They lost the last 8 wickets for 36 runs.  Babar and Mohammad Rizwan scored 99 runs together.  Pakistan's remaining nine batsmen contributed 92 runs.  Pakistan's innings ended on 191 runs in 42.5 overs.  As a result, Babar's dream of breaking the record remained elusive at the Narendra Modi Stadium.  In reply, India picked up the required runs to win by 3 wickets.

 The two openers Abdullah Shafiq (20) and Imam-ul-Haq (36) played in an aggressive mood after starting and there were some sublime strokeplay .  They chose Mohammad Siraj to score runs.  However, there was no particular damage.  Because no one could score big runs. Shafique (20) was finally lbw to Siraj after looking good and Imam (36) was caught behind of Hardik.   After the dismissal of two openers, captain Babar led the team with Rizwan.  The pair of the two consistently put their minds to the work of building a big innings by scoring runs in every over.  But the Pak captain lost his composure after scoring 50 runs with the help of 7 fours and was bowled by Siraj trying to dab a ball behind slips  Pakistan's innings collapsed like a house of cards after he was dismissed by Siraj.  After breaking the pair of 83 runs for the third wicket, Rizwan was dismissed by Jashpreet Bumrah.  He could not even complete his half century.  He made 49 runs with the help of 7 fours.

The rest of Pakistan's batsmen practically reached 22 yards and returned to the dugout.  None of Saud Shakeel (6), Iftiker Ahmed (4), Shadab Khan (2), Mohammad Nawaz (4), Hasan Ali (12), Harris Rauf (2) tried to stand on the wicket.  Indian bowlers benefited from this.  They shared the wickets of Pakistan.

 India's most successful bowler Bumrah took 2 wickets for 19 runs.  Kuldeep Yadav also bowled  well.  He has 2 wickets for 35 runs.  Siraj took 2 wickets costing 50 runs.  Hardik Pandya took 2 wickets with 34 runs.  2 wickets for 38 runs by Ravindra Jadeja.  That is, the Indian bowlers shared the wickets of Pakistan.