Five epic India vs Pakistan matches that left fans craving for more

India playing against Pakistan is considered the mother of all rivalries in the cricketing world. The two arch-rivals last played against each other in a group stage competition of the 2021 20-20 World Cup.

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The Men in Green won their last encounter quite easily, by a margin of 10 wickets. While the latest clash between the two did not live up to the expectations or the hype of the age-old rivalry, these two teams have presented the cricketing fraternity with many memorable encounters. Here's look at top five India vs Pakistan nail-biters

5. World T20 group stage match, 2007: The Men in Blue came into the tournament under the leadership of a new and young captain, MS Dhoni. This match was a must-win game for India to qualify for the next stage.

India batted first and put together a modest, yet fighting total of 141 runs in their 20 overs. The Pakistanis came out to bat and made a real fight of the total. The match went into a thrilling last over where the Pakistan team could not quite achieve their target and finished at exactly 141 runs. The match ended in a tie. This took the competition to the newly introduced ‘Bowl Out’. The Indians hit the wickets consecutive three times in the bowl-out, while their rivals missed all three. This brought a victory for India in a unique and thrilling clash.

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4. Chennai Test, 1999: This Test has made its place in the history book as one of the closest matches. Pakistan put up scores of 238 and 286 in their two innings. India scored 254 in their first innings and was left to chase down 271 runs in the fourth innings.

The fourth innings of the test saw one of the greatest Test knocks by Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin came out to bat at a score of 2 for 6 runs. While he kept losing partners, Sachin was focused to win the match for his country. He was dismissed at a personal score of 136 runs and a team total of 254. With three wickets left, India could not chase down the remaining 17 runs and fell short of the target by 12 runs.

3. Austral-Asia Cup, 1986: This match was part of the Austral-Asia Cup, 1986. The venue of the match was the iconic Sharjah stadium.

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India batted first in the match and scored 245 runs in their 50 overs. Sunil Gavaskar scored a brilliant 92 runs, while Srikanth made 75 runs. Pakistan, while chasing the target kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but Javed Miandad stood strong. Miandad scored 116 runs and slammed six of the last ball of the match to give Pakistan an exhilarating victory.

2. World Cup, 2003: India against Pakistan in a World Cup match in 2003 gave the fans a match to remember. Pakistan batted first in the match and put up a formidable total of 273 runs on the back of Saeed Anwar’s 101 runs innings.

India came out to chase the target, with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag giving India a quick-fire start. After the great start, Pakistan came back with two quick wickets, but Sachin was immovable. Sachin ultimately got out at 98 runs, more due to his fatigue than anything else. The remaining runs were achieved by Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh very easily and India won the match by 4 wickets.

 1. World T20 Final, 2007: Cricketing action can’t get better than India and Pakistan in an international tournament’s final.

India batted first and scored 157 runs in their 20 overs, courtesy of Gautam Gambhir’s wonderful 75 runs. Pakistan started the chase well but lost their way mid-innings, losing a chunk of wickets. But Misbah-ul-Haq took the game to the last over. Dhoni gave the ball to Joginder Sharma, who was very expensive in his previous overs. Misbah stroked a mammoth six on the second delivery to bring the equation down to 4 runs of the last two balls. But then Misbah tried to execute a scoop over the fine leg but was caught by S Sreesanth at short fine leg. India thus won the match and the inaugural 20-20 World Cup.