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Babar, Afridi star as Pakistan end India's 12-match winning steak in World Cups

The day has come where the Pakistan fans can celebrate a win over India, that too in a world event. India’s 12 game winning streak came to a halt as Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets.

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Sam Abraham
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Pakistan

Pakistan ( Image Credit: Twitter)

The day has come where the Pakistan fans can celebrate a win over India, that too in a world event. India’s 12 game winning streak came to a halt as Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets. Yes, 10 wickets and it was complete domination. Opting to bowl, Shaheen Shah Afridi set the tone by dismissing Rohit Sharma for a first-ball duck. In the next over, he shattered KL Rahul’s stump to leave India reeling at 6-2.

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The bowlers were very disciplined and didn’t allow India any freebies. Suryakumar Yadav too wasted a golden opportunity and was dismissed for 11. At 31-3 in the 6th over, India were in deep trouble. However, skipper Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant resurrected the inning with a 53 run stand. Pant was dismissed in an attempt to up the ante. Virat Kohli did manage to score a fifty but this was not his most fluent innings as he struggled to find the boundary consistently. Eventually, India had to settle for a below-par 151-7.

Given Pakistan's record against India, this was a total where India would have hoped to make a match out of it. However, that was not the case to be. Never during the course of the innings, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan looked like getting out. Indian bowlers too didn’t have their best day but the way Babar and Rizwan showed their composure must be pleasing for the Pakistan team and players.

Post the loss, Indian skipper Virat Kohli rued lack of execution and hailed Pakistan for playing better cricket. "We didn't execute properly. Credit where it's due and Pakistan outplayed us today. They started brilliantly with the ball, and 3 wickets for 20 runs was not a good start. We needed wickets early but with the bat they gave us absolutely no chances. It played slow in the first half and hitting through the line was not that easy as it was in the second half, after 10 overs. We needed those 15-20 extra runs and for that we needed a good start but Pakistan's bowling didn't allow us to get those extra runs. We could make the argument of getting in another slower bowler, but it's important to stay composed and understand our strengths, because with the dew the slower bowlers couldn't be effective either. This is just the first game of the tournament, not the last," said Kohli.

Cricket News 20-20 World Cup 2021