Convincing. Morale-boosting. Record-breaking. Majestic. We are falling short of words to highlight India’s all-round effort to script a record-extending 8th ODI World Cup triumph against arch-rivals Pakistan, courtesy of an seven-wicket win.

India bowled first, and every bowler in the lineup besides Shardul Thakur (who bowled only two overs) grabbed two wickets each in their pursuit of bundling out PAK for 191. Captain Babar Azam (50) and Mohammed Rizwan (49) were the lone fighters at the crease for the visitors.

After early contributions from Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli (both scoring 16 runs), Rohit Sharma (86) and Shreyas Iyer (53*)  anchored the run chase and helped India CONQUER Pakistan inside 30.3 overs. Let’s relive this thrilling encounter.

Powerplay and a WICKET

Pakistan jumped off to a confident start with a 41-run partnership between Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique. But, the momentum would be broken by Mohammed Siraj, whose plumb delivery was simply inevitable for Abdullah (20) to get away with. At the end of the powerplay, the score would read 49/1.

Hardik & Siraj present Breaking Partnerships

IPL home-boy Hardik Pandya ensured he made in-roads in the INDvPAK on his home turf at the Narendra Modi Stadium. After conceding a boundary, Pandya bowled a length ball that successfully caught the outside edge off the bat of Imam (36), and it sailed towards KL Rahul, who dived onto his left for a simple catch.

Siraj, meanwhile, broke through the defences of half-centurion Babar Azam (50) with a delivery that angled in and clipped off the bails of the off stump. This put a full stop to an 82-run partnership between Babar and Rizwan.

Boom! The pitch is two Kul for the PAK batters

Between overs 30 and 40, the Pakistan batters were at the mercy of Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. While BOOM BOOM bowled the same angling delivery to claim the wickets of Mohammad Rizwan (49) and Shadab Khan (2), Kuldeep, in turn, grabbed two scalps in his eighth over.

First, Kuldeep trapped Saud Shakeel (6) for an LBW and later, in the over, he bowled a wrong’un that caught the glove of Iftikhar Ahmed (4) and then knocked the stumps.

Target locked: 192

Hardik Pandya’s second wicket of the day (Mohammad Nawaz - 4), Ravindra Jadeja joined the party with the dismissals of Hasan Ali (12) and Haris Rauf (2). And that was it. From 155/2 in 29.3 overs to 191 all out inside 42.5 overs, PAK suffered their third-worst collapse in ODIs.

India’s first checkpoint: 79/2

With a target of 192 in sight, India started in a way the jam-packed Narendra Modi Stadium would love: boundaries and sixes.

A returning Shubman Gill (16) and Virat Kohli (16) dispatched a combined seven boundary fours off the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mohammed Nawaz and Haris Rauf before the former duo would see their cameos cut short.

He came, he saw, he smacked! Welcome to the Hitman Show

While he oversaw his trusted batters depart, skipper Rohit Sharma raced to his 53rd ODI half-century in 36 balls. The Hitman, known to soak the pressure and deliver at crucial moments, notched his sixth fifty-plus ODI score in eight innings against PAK (91, 0, 52, 111*, 140, 11, 56, 86).

With less than 40 runs needed, Rohit would call time on his effort on the pitch after his attempt for a drive shot ended in a dolly to Iftikhar Ahmed at mid-wicket.

ShreYAAAS finishes it in style

After playing sidekick to Rohit during his knock, Shreyas Iyer (53*) took the baton and carried India to a seven-wicket victory with a sensational boundary four straight downtown.

With this, India extended their record to 8-0 against Pakistan in the ODI World Cup and on top of the points table with six points and a net run rate of +1.821.

Brief scores: India 192/3 (Rohit Sharma 86, Shreyas Iyer 53*; Shaheen Afridi 2/36) BEAT Pakistan 191 (Babar Azam 50, Mohammed Rizwan 49; Jasprit Bumrah 2/19) by seven wickets.