India vs. Pakistan: cricket’s greatest rivalry – ICC World Cup 2011
An India-Pakistan game in any sport is treated like war on both sides of the border and especially when it comes to cricket. Any India-Pakistan encounter is undoubtedly regarded as the “Mother of all Matches”. Whenever the two Asian giants clash on the field
of play, businesses are shut down, markets closed, offices skipped, colleges bunked and much more.
People of all age groups, on both sides of the border get glued to their television sets or radios, not willing to miss a moment of the action as it occurs. Emotions run high and heartbeats skip not only on the spectator side, but also on the players who
are battling out there in the centre.
Expectations run high everywhere, but one formula is simple and for sure. The team that holds onto their nerves will win. It is all about absorbing pressure and tackling the heat of the moment. In the end, it boils down to experience and keeping one’s head.
There are some great examples of some seriously amazing cricketers to have graced India-Pakistan contests with their star performances. Notable performers have been http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383, Mohammad
Yousuf, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shoaib-Akhtar-c90080, Waqar Younis, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kris Srikkanth, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble. The above-mentioned group of extraordinary men always added a special spice to the India-Pakistan matches. In other words,
these men are all masterful crowd-pullers.
Although Pakistan has always had an edge against India in One Day International cricket as far as statistics are concerned, but these matches have a history of going right down to the wire and consequently causing heart-attacks to a few weak-hearted individuals.
Infact, during Pakistan’s test match against India in Bangalore during the 2005 series, an Indian man from the state of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 on the brink of losing the match.
Some unforgettable moments have occurred in matches between the two Asian giants. Imran Khan calling Dilip Vengsarkar back, as he was wrongly judged out, only to be dismissed on the very next ball. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 had vowed before the series started that the game
would be played fair and square and that Pakistan would aim to win the series on pure merit and fairness. This turned out to be the case, as Pakistan defeated India in that test series back in 1987.
Then during the 1992 World Cup match, Javed Miandad’s mid-pitch hopping dance, imitating the Indian wicket-keeper Kiran More’s style of appealing every now and then. During the 1996 World Cup quarter-final at Bangalore, Waqar Younis being smacked for 47
runs in two overs by Ajay Jadeja and then the altercation in mid-pitch between Venkatesh Prasad and Amir Sohail with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sohail-c90628 being cleaned up next ball by Prasad. Then in 1997, the immaculate Saeed Anwar’s brilliant 194 runs knock at Chennai which stayed as
the highest individual ODI score record for the next 13 years, was a true splendor.
Another memorable moment is Pakistan’s Test Series and Asian Test Championship wins in 1999 and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Anil-Kumble-c44737’s 10-wicket haul in an innings at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Sharjah hosted many Pakistan-India games and many records were made and broken there.
Notably the 231 runs stand between Sachin Tendulkar and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Navjot-Singh-Sidhu-c78928 against Pakistan.
Then a cricketing dead-lock was created between the two countries due to the deteriorating political relations. This was finally broken when India toured Pakistan in 2004. The Indian team had taken Lahore, Karachi, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Multan-c819 and Rawalpindi by storm and people
from India received special Visas to come and watch the matches. Pakistan’s return tour to India in 2005 showcased some of the most splendid and hard-fought cricket between two of the biggest arch-rivals. Pakistan prevailed and took the ODI Series while drawing
the Test Series.
This series of home and way tours continued until the 2008 Asia Cup in Pakistan, as the political scenario again abandoned Indian-Pakistan cricket. The two teams now only meet in International Cricket Council events like the World Cup and the Champions Trophy.
There are two contrasting records, as Pakistan has never beaten India in an ICC World Cup game and India has never beaten http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in an ICC Champions Trophy game.
The highest Indian total against Pakistan has been 356-9 at Vishakapatnam back in 2005 while Pakistan’s highest total against India is 344-8 at Karachi in 2004. The great match in which Pakistan fell short by just 3 runs in a herculean chasing effort, courtesy
Inzamam-ul-Haq and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Yousuf-c77465. Moreover, there has been 19 centuries scored by Indians in ODIs versus Pakistan’s 28.
Tendulkar has scored 5 centuries against Pakistan, while Sourav Ganguly has scored 3 centuries. As far as Pakistan's record is concerned, both http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-Butt-c2418 has got 3.
Seven wickets for 37 runs by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aaqib-Javed-c41431 at Sharjah in 1991 remains the best bowling with Imran Khan's 6 for 14 and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan's 6 for 27 at Jamshedpur also amongst the top performances. Five wickets for 16 runs by Sourav Ganguly in 1997 at Toronto
is the best bowling record by an Indian bowler against Pakistan in ODIs. Amongst the wicket-keepers, Moin Khan has been the most successful, with 71 dismissals behind the stumps.
Pakistan’s 159 runs victory against India in 2005 in the final ODI at Feroz Shah Kotla in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 is the biggest victory margin between the two Asian giants. Inzamam has the most runs for any batsman between the two arch-rivals with 2403 runs, as Miandad possesses
the highest average. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saqlain-Mushtaq-c88743 picked up 57 wickets
As far as the winning ratio goes, in 124 Matches, 46 have been won by India, 69 by Pakistan while 9 matches have produced no result at all. However, one thing is for sure, whichever team succumbs to the heat of the situation and the crowd pressure will definitely
lose. The team that holds onto their nerves and tackles the pressure will prevail at the end of the day.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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