Mumbai Indians

This past 19th wasn’t your usual Saturday. It was the day when two arch-rivals fought for points to qualify for the Super10 Group to the semi-finals. The fans were restless. But as the sporadic rain came and caused delay to this great battle, the two countries waited patiently for it to begin. The match started late and it was shortened to an 18 overs innings per side.

India needed to win this match, not only to maintain their World Twenty20 winning streak against Pakistan but to also change the history of ODI losses against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in ’87, ’89, ’04 and ’13.

India won the toss and chose bowling, a wise decision from Captain ‘Cool’ Dhoni. The game began with Pakistan trying to whack the ball past the fielders, which was countered by some excellent fielding from Team India. For Instance, Pandya’s intense run and majestic dive to catch out Sharjeel. He tumbled forward to catch the ball with both his hands and hurt himself in the process. The young Bumrah took a wicket which was the result of some tight consistent bowling. Bumrah allowed Shehzad a boundary and when he got greedy for more, he tricked him into hitting a shot, only to find Jadeja waiting for him on the off-side.

The Indian Innings wasn’t pretty straight forward either. It kicked off with Sharma, who by the 2nd over miscalculated Amir’s bowling and hit the ball straight to Malik. Sharma seemed hungry and by the looks of it he did try to bounce back to scoring runs on the 23rd and 27th. Kolhi’s unbeaten 55 was the sole reason for India making the chase. The match came to an end with Dhoni’s match ending ‘Six’ off Irfan’s ball, to even out the score followed by a run to win.

For now, India’s winning streak against Pakistan in World Twenty20s remains unchallenged and India remains unbeaten against Pakistan.