Pakistan started their campaign in style to outplay India by 10 wickets in the much-awaited clash at the ‘Ring of Fire’ - the Dubai Cricket Stadium.
Shaheen Shah Afridi set the tone by knocking off India’s two dangerous openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul and when Rahul walked, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant had to do the consolidation but every time Pakistan bowlers came back to strike and restricted India to a below par score of 151.
What was good to notice was the intent shown by all the Pakistan players and they were on the money from ball one and fielded like Tigers throwing themselves to save every single run. The captaincy from Babar Azam was spot on and used his bowlers cleverly to restrict the strong Indian batting to just 151 on a decent batting wicket. And when they were on the chase, they kept the same intensity and both Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan played positively and never got bogged down and attacked all the Indian bowlers to chase down the target in 18 overs and set the tone for the World Cup that they are a team to watch out.
Virat Kohli said in the post-match conference that Pakistan never let them in the game and dominated in all facets be it batting, bowling and fielding and deserved to be winners.
It must be a great relief of all the fans who were waiting for this result to go their way since the last 29 years and what best way was to beat India by ten wickets and start their campaign in this world cup.
