An India-Pakistan game witnesses peak levels of excitement and anticipation for a sporting event. The neighbouring nations, when pit against one another, produce memorable contests, at ICC tournaments in particular. Rain did intervene in their seventh ODI World Cup meeting, and although there was a reduction in overs in the second innings, there was none in the support of the fans in Manchester.

The Men in Blue improved the already lopsided head-to-head score against Pakistan at the CWC, making it 7-0. The protagonist of this Indian victory was Rohit Sharma, who scored his second century at CWC 19, and 24^th in ODI cricket. The Hitman ton was remarkable and quite unlike the first one in India’s campaign opener against South Africa.

Pakistan won the toss and Sarfaraz Ahmed put India to bat first. Rohit played a more aggressive role than usual, as in the absence of injured Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul was prudent in the initial overs. As Rohit smashed 14 fours and three sixes in his 113-ball 140 knock, Rahul and Virat Kohli too were among the runs at the other end. Rahul hit a well-spaced 57 and the skipper scored 77 in quick time to make him the fastest player to reach 11,000 ODI runs, in just 222 innings.

Mohammad Amir was the lone Pakistani pacer who was a threat to the Indian batsmen. Although Amir and Imad Wasim got five wickets between them with an economy rate under 5, India managed to tame the other bowlers according to their will. Like against the Aussies, India’s top three got 50+ scores to their credit to lead the team to 336/5 in 50 overs.

India’s target defence got an early blow as swing ace Bhuvneshwar Kumar hobbled out due to a niggle in his left hamstring in the middle of the fifth over. The unforeseen injury led to CWC 19 debutant Vijay Shankar bowling the remainder of the over, who got a wicket on his very first ball. After the departure of Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam built a steady 104-run partnership.

Kuldeep Yadav came to India’s rescue as he sent both the set batsmen back to the hut in consecutive overs. One delivery that completely outsmarted Babar and disturbed the stumps, and another tossed up ball that Fakhar top-edged to fine leg got Kuldeep his two scalps. The departure of these two started the collapse of their batting. In the 27^th over, Hardik Pandya got the wickets of Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik on back-to-back balls.

Rains stopped play twice during the game at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground. The second intervention led to deduction of Pakistan’s innings to 40 overs. The game fizzled out towards the end as the target was certainly beyond Pakistan’s reach. A comprehensive win for India as the Men in Blue, winning with 86 runs, continued their incredible World Cup tradition versus Pakistan since 1992.

From the several positives from India’s seventh CWC win against their conterparts, impressive performances from Rahul, Kuldeep and Shankar proved this Indian side does not rely on only a handful of players to take them over the line.

India now have seven points from four games at the World Cup and will take some stopping if their unbeaten run is to be broken. Kohli’s men will face Afghanistan in their next match on 22^nd June at The Rose Bowl, Southampton.