AHMEDABAD: In the end, it wasn’t much of a contest. It was, however, a spectacle. As a memory, the India v. Pakistan encounter would stay with the fans, close to a lakh, who were present at the Narendra Modi Stadium to witness the hosts cruise to a seven-wicket win on Saturday. From 9 AM till about quarter past 8 in the evening, it was a carnival. There was music, a concert, a mid-innings performance as a partisan crowd egged and cheered for the Men in Blue.
It was surreal to hear about a lakh people singing the national anthem (their booing of Pakistan captain Babar Azam at the toss was hard to miss). The chants continued every time an Indian pacer ran in or Rohit Sharma hit a six (he hit six of them). On the field, Pakistan were in the game for the better part of the first inning after being put into bat. However, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah conjured magic and triggered a collapse. After Azam’s fifty, Pakistan slumped from 162/3 to 171/7.
From there on, they crumbled to 191 as Indian bowlers — barring Shardul Thakur — took two wickets each. In reply, it was once again Sharma who dictated terms. Knowing that it may be difficult to hit once the field spread out, the opener took apart Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf as India reached 50 in just 6.4 overs. Sharma kept the carnival going as he hit the Pakistani bowlers into the stands. Pull, cut, loft, slog — not a shot was left out — you name it and he played it.
He smashed 86 off 63 to set the game up for Shreyas Iyer (53 n.o) to guide India home in 30.3 overs. In the lead-up to the match, all the talk was about pressure, the big game and the contest. But in the end, it remained a one-sided game as India continued their World Cup streak against Pakistan, taking it to 8-0. As for the tournament itself, they could not have asked for a better atmosphere to get the World Cup going. Table-topping India, who have six points from three games, next travel to Pune to face Bangladesh on Thursday before going to Dharamsala for the challenge of the Black Caps on October 22.