By Rahul Banerji
Rohit Sharma’s gossamer strokes, Kuldeep Yadav’s vicious spin, Virat Kohli’s buzzybee captaincy, and Sarfaraz Ahmed’s humongous yawns will long remain memories of India’s latest ICC World Cup victory over Pakistan at Manchester, extending a run of similar results at the tournament.
And then there is the Sachin Tendulkar factor in five of the seven straight wins.
In the over-heated, over-hyped atmosphere that surrounds an India-Pakistan match now, it helps to remember a more relaxed time, when broadcasters did not vie with poisonous crassness in the race for eyeballs, and national leaders did not flaunt cricket match results with metaphorical waving of the flag.
Lending an edge is the social media discourse, which of course knows or recognises no boundaries in civility, dignity and decency. Victory is a time to crow, forgetting that winning and losing is a part of sport and these selfsame heroes would be vilified and abused endlessly of the outcome were to be reversed.
Yet, there are doses of humour and self-deprecation to be found as well, as a stream of Pakistani twitterati displayed after Sunday’s heavy defeat at Old Trafford, and received appreciating (plenty of expected abuse as well) from those on this side of the border.
Sunday’s outcome was the seventh time India have got the better of their cross-border rivals in the World Cup. The streak stretches all the way back to 1992, where Mohammad Azharuddin’s team beat Pakistan in the prelims, though Imran Khan’s side were to prevail in the still more important final.
Join me then in a short walk through time.
1992 (Sydney Cricket Ground)
In a match made memorable by Javed Miandad’s antics, Sachin Tendulkar, at 18 playing the first of his record six ICC World Cups led the way with a half-century as India posted a sub-par 216 for seven wickets with support from Ajay Jadeja and Kapil Dev.
Kapil then came back with the ball as he and fellow speedsters Manoj Prabhakar and Javagal Srinath picked up two wickets each to bowl Imran Khan’s Pakistan out for a meager 173 even as Miandad, irked by Kiran More’s constant chirping and leaping around behind the wickets, entered World Cup folklore with his monkey-jump imitations, which were caught on camera and became the image of that match.
Ironically, India were eliminated at the group stage with just two wins and one washout from their eight matches while Pakistan, qualifying as the last of the four semi-finalists went on to win their only World Cup trophy.
Scores: India 216/7 in 49 overs (Ajay Jadeja 46, Sachin Tendulkar 54, Kapil Dev 35; Aaqib Javed 2/28, Mushtaq Ahmed 3/59) bt Pakistan 173 in 48.1 overs (Aamer Sohail 62, Javed Miandad 40; Kapil Dev 2/30, Manoj Prabhakar 2/22, Javagal Srinath 2/37) by 43 runs Match reduced to 49 overs by Pakistan’s over rate).
1996 (M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore)
Pakistan legend Javed Miandad’s final one-day international appearance was to be a disappointing one as India rode Navjot Sidhu’s 93 at the top of the order and Ajay Jadeja’s quick 45 at the end to a total Pakistan were unable to chase down in their Bangalore quarter-final after India had qualified as the last placed team from their group behind Sri Lanka and Australia.
They had started in style with openers Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar pasting the Indian attack to all parts of the small Bangalore ground before local lad B.V. Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble throttled Pakistan into submission.
This tournament also saw the launch of Sri Lankan great Sanath Jayasuriya’s cavalier approach at the top of the order and he led the slaughter of India’s attack at the Kotla in the group phase that ended Manoj Prabhakar’s international career.
India went down to the Lankans again in the infamous collapse at Calcutta’s Eden Gardens and Arjuna Ranatunga’s side went on to make history in Lahore with the island nation’s only World Cup title, thigh they would figure in two more World Cup finals
Scores: India 287/8 in 50 overs (Navjot Sidhu 93, Sachin Tendulkar 31, Ajay Jadeja 45; Waqar Younis 2/67, Mushtaq Ahmed 2/56) bt Pakistan 248/9 in 49 overs (Aamer Sohail 55, Saeed Anwar 48, Salim Malik 38, Javed Miandad 38; Venkatesh Prasad 3/45, Anil Kumble 3/48) by 39 runs.
1999 (Old Trafford, Manchester)
Sachin Tendulkar continued his remarkable consistency in influencing India-Pakistan World Cup games as he, Rahul Dravid and skipper Mohammad Azharuddin combined to help post 227 for six wickets and with the Karnataka trio of Srinath, Prasad and Kumble picking up all 10 Pakistan wickets to fall,
India extended their clean sheet at the ICC’s showpiece tournament over their western neighbours and perennial rivals but crashed out at the Super Sixes stage with that lone win. Pakistan progressed to a one-sided final at Lords where they were thrashed by Ricky Ponting’s Australia, who pipped South Africa on run rate in the semis.
Scores: India 227/6 in 50 overs (Sachin Tendulkar 45, Rahul Dravid 61, Md Azharuddin 59; Wasim Akram 2/27, Azhar Mahmood 2/35) bt Pakistan 180 in 45.3 overs (Saeed Anwar 36, Inzamam-ul Haq 41, Moin Khan 34; Javagal Srinath 3/37, Venkatesh Prasad 5/27, Anil Kumble 2/43) by 47 runs.
2003 (Centurion Park, Pretoria)
Batting second for once in a World Cup face off, India were still too good for Pakistan in their group phase match at Centurion. Saeed Anwar led off with a hundred but Sachin Tendulkar replied with a classy 98 as India chased a moderate target down with plenty in the tank.
Yuvraj Singh, who would make a later World Cup edition all his own closed out the chase alongside Rahul Dravid for a six-wicket win.
This tournament will always be remembered as the one that got away. Tendulkar had never batted better at a World Cup, had aggregated 600-plus runs and yet, in the final India invited Australia to bat first, and that was that.
Till today, there is no cogent explanation why Sourav Ganguly won the toss and did not give his rampant batting unit first use of the Wanderers pitch in Johannesburg.
Scores: Pakistan 273/7 in 50 overs (Saeed Anwar 101, Younis Khan 32; Zaheer Khan 2/46, Ashish Nehra 2/74) lost to India 276/4 in 45.4 overs (Sachin Tendulkar 98, Md Kaif 35, Rahul Dravid 44 not out, Yuvraj Singh 50 not out) by 6 wkts.
2011 (PCA Stadium, Mohali)
Sachin Tendulkar’s sixth and last World Cup finally saw him lay his hands on the trophy after so many disappointments over the years and the icing on the cake came not only from the title victory over Sri Lanka in Mumbai but also from the fact that for one last time, he put the boot into the old rivals.
In a match remembered more for the number of times he was dropped by the Pakistani fielders than the quality of his runs, Tendulkar’s 85 was the difference between the two sides at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.
Scores: India 260/9 in 50 overs (Sachin Tendulkar 85, Virender Sehwag 38, Suresh Raina 36 not out; Wahab Riaz 5/46, Saeed Ajmal 2/44) bt Pakistan 231 in 49.5 overs (Md Hafeez 43, Misbah-ul Haq 56; Zaheer Khan 2/58, Ashish Nehra 2/33, Munaf Patel 2/40, Harbhajan Singh 2/43, Yuvraj Singh 2/57) by 29 runs.
2015 (Adelaide Oval)
With Tendulkar out of the way, Pakistan may have hoped for some respite in a World Cup game but India now had a new superstar to lead the way.
Virat Kohli stepped up with a rapid hundred with good support from Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina. It was a first Indian hundred against Pakistan in the World Cup and the first 300 total against that side and it was left to seamers Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma and Mohammad Shami to blast Pakistan out of the way.
India topped the group phase with six wins and thrashed Bangladesh in the quarters but fell to all-conquering hosts Australia in the semis. Michael Clarke’s team then routed fellow tournament hosts New Zealand in a one-sided final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a record fifth World Cup crown.
Scores: India 300/7 in 50 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 73, Virat Kohli 107, Suresh Raina 74; Sohail Khan 5/55) bt Pakistan 223 in 47 overs (Ahmed Shehzad 47, Haris Sohail 36, Misbah-ul Haq 76; Umesh Yadav 2/50, Md Shami 4/35, Mohit Sharma 2/35) by 76 runs.
2019 (Old Trafford, Manchester)
This one needs no recounting. Just one point, though. This is not the first time a billion-plus TV audience has tuned in for an Indo-Pak World Cup game, but the second, after their 2015 encounter in Adelaide four years ago.
Scores: India 2336/5 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 140, K.L. Rahul 57, Virat Kohli 77; Md Amir 3/47) bt Pakistan 212/6 in 40 overs, rain reduced (Fakhar Zaman 62, Babar Azam 48, Imdad Wasim 40 not out; Vijay Shankar 2/22, Hardik Pandya 2/44, Kuldeep Yadav 2/32) by 89 runs D/L method.
Also read: Upbeat India get to work, but hosts are my favourites
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