Babar Azam-led Pakistan National Cricket Team took on Rohit Sharma-led India National Cricket Team in the biggest match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 on Sunday, June 9 at the International Cricket Stadium of Nassau County in New York.
Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first in the match. They managed to dismiss batting superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma early. Pakistan’s bowlers looked threatening with the ball and kept all the Indian batsmen quiet except Rishabh Pant (42). Also, the Men in Green bowled out India (119) for the first time in T20I history.
Chasing the target, Pakistan got off to a good start but Babar Azam failed to score much and was dismissed in the fifth over. Then, Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman and Imad Wasim scored squeaky but crucial runs and took the game deep. In the end, Pakistan’s lower order failed to contribute and were restricted to 113/7, losing the match by 6 runs.
Speaking after the match, Babar Azam revealed why Pakistan lost the match. He said they lost consecutive wickets quickly and played too many dot balls, which cost them the match. Babar Azam said:
“We bowled well. In batting, we lost consecutive wickets and had too many dot balls. The tactics were simple to play normally. Just rotation of strokes and some strange boundaries. But in that period we had too many dot balls. Can we We didn’t expect much from those behind. Our mind was to use the first overs in batting, but one wicket less, and again we were not up to par in the first six.”
Talking about the pitch, Babar Azam said it was decent. He also stated that they would go back to the drawing board and figure out the mistakes. Babar Azam said:
“The pitch looked decent. The ball was coming in well. It was a little slow and some balls bounced more. I have to win the last two games. We will sit and discuss our mistakes, but we are looking forward to the last two games.”
What happened in the previous T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan
The previous ICC Men’s T20 World Cup clash between India and Pakistan took place in 2022. It was the 16th match of the competition when the Group 2 teams faced off at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23.
The packed stadium saw an absolutely thrilling match between the arch-rivals as both teams did everything they could to ensure they finished on the winning side. India got lucky in the toss and decided to bowl first.
The Indian bowlers showed pure class and bowled excellent lines and lengths throughout the 20 overs. Pakistan’s batsmen struggled and found it difficult to deal with the bowlers. Had Shan Masood (52) and Iftikhar Ahmed (51) not stepped up with their half-centuries, the Men in Green would have been shut out for a very low total.
Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya picked up three wickets each for India while Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar got one as they restricted Pakistan to 159/8.
While chasing, India got off to the worst possible start as they were reduced to 31/4. The match seemed to have slipped out of India’s hands, but Virat Kohli showed the greatness of him and produced arguably the best T20I innings ever. His knock also included an incredible six against Haris Rauf, which was declared by ICC as the Shot of the Century and Best Moment in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Virat Kohli scored stupendous runs of 82* and Hardik Pandya (40) also made a decent contribution as India won the match by 4 wickets in the last ball.
