India beat Pakistan by 7 wickets

India beat Pakistan by 7 wickets in the 12th group stage clash of ICC World Cup 2023 here in Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi stadium.

Babar Azam’s 50 became Pakistan’s only saving grace as India’s Bumrah, Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav rattled Pakistan’s batting line-up restricting them to 191 as Pakistan could only play 42.5 overs. India had won the toss and put Pakistan to bat first.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma made a brilliant 86 to help India chase down the total in 30.3 overs. Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi took two wickets while Hasan Ali dismissed Virat Kohli.

Read more: Babar Azam crowned ICC Men’s Player of the Month

PAK- FALL OF WICKETS

1-41 (Abdullah Shafique, 7.6 ov), 2-73 (Imam-ul-Haq, 12.3 ov), 3-155 (Babar Azam, 29.4 ov), 4-162 (Saud Shakeel, 32.2 ov), 5-166 (Iftikhar Ahmed, 32.6 ov), 6-168 (Mohammad Rizwan, 33.6 ov), 7-171 (Shadab Khan, 35.2 ov), 8-187 (Mohammad Nawaz, 39.6 ov), 9-187 (Hassan Ali, 40.1 ov), 10-191 (Haris Rauf, 42.5 ov)

IND– FALL OF WICKETS

1-23 (Shubman Gill, 2.5 ov), 2-79 (V Kohli, 9.5 ov), 3-156 (RG Sharma, 21.4 ov)

“We were looking to field as well. Momentum is very high and we want to continue that,” said Pakistan team captain Babar Azam.

India made one change, with Shubman Gill replacing Ishan Kishan.

Pakistan have never won against India in the ODI World Cup in their seven outings since 1992.

Their previous loss was by 89 runs in a rain-hit league match of the 2019 edition in Manchester.

India remain behind in their overall ODI head-to-heads against Pakistan with 56 wins and 73 losses.

Playing XIs

Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Babar Azam’s side entered the mega-event as the number two ranked ODI side and enjoys the best win/loss ratio of 2.400 in this World Cup cycle.

Pakistan missed out on a semi-final spot in the 2019 iteration of the World Cup because of a lower net run-rate to New Zealand, who ended up as runners-up. The team’s best performance came in the 1992 edition when they lifted the trophy at the MCG after defeating England. Pakistan featured in the final of the 1999 edition and reached semi-finals in 1979, 1983, 1987, and 2011.