The ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 which is currently being held in USA and West Indies, for the first time the country of United States of America witnessed the Cricket's biggest rivalry where India and Pakistan locked horns in New York, June 9th 2024. As always India versus Pakistan came with a lot of expectation and excitement among the fans of both the nations.
Before going on to the match let's talk about the venue in which the game was played. It was a newly built stadium in New York which was specifically built for this T20 World Cup 2024. The main pitch was not prepared in USA it was lifted and transported from Australia. So before this match between India and Pakistan there were few matches played in this venue and the pitch behaved very strangely and favored the bowlers more. So Pakistan with their reputed fast bowling line up had an upper hand before coming to this game.
As per previous matches results at this venue and according to cricket experts and analysts it was advisable for the team who wins the toss should elect tp bowl first so that they have a little upper hand because the team which batted second won the matches held in this particular venue.
The start of the match was delayed due to rain. After the delayed start, at 8:00 PM IST, Pakistan won the toss and with no hesitation Babar Azam the captain of Pakistan decided to bowl first in the bowling friendly conditions of the newly built stadium of New York. The Indian captain Rohit Sharma also expressed his views that even he would have elected to bowl first which was no brainer in such venue which helped the bowlers during the initial phase of play.
The Indian team with their new opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli started off with the eight run over off the 1st over which included a massive pick up short 6 by Rohit Sharma to Shaheen Shah Afridi but the play was again interrupted due to the arrival of rain once again on the venue.
Once the play resumed again after the rain, Virat Kohli was dismissed early after scoring a boundary off Naseem Shah bowling, soon Rohit Sharma also was dismissed by Shaheen Shah Afridi after scoring few boundaries. India lost early wickets and Pakistan had put pressure on the Indian batters by taking the advantage of the bowling friendly conditions of the venue.
Rishabh pant and Axar Patel stitched a decent partnership bringing India back on track until Axar Patel was dismissed by Naseem Shah after the decent display of batting in this pitch. Rishabh pant was joined by Surya Kumar Yadav in the middle.
Meanwhile Rishabh Pant was living dangerously in the middle in the bowlers favoring conditions, it was obvious as it was Rishabh Pant natural way of playing. Surya Kumar Yadav and Rishabh pant stitched a small partnership until Surya Kumar Yadav was dismissed by Haris Rauf.
Soon even Rishabh Pant fell as he was dismissed by Mohammad Amir for a well made 42 runs, Ravindra Jadeja was dismissed as soon as he came for a golden duck the Indian Batters collapsed and in the end they could manage only 119 runs and India were bowled out for 119 runs setting a target of 120 for Pakistan.
The Pakistan batters begin the chase of 120 runs which was quite gettable which was not so difficult as they needed just one run for each ball they face. The Pakistani openers Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam started well making a small partnership until Babar Azam was dismissed buy Jasprit Bumrah.
In this match Jasprit Bumrah holds the key as he single handedly not to forget with the help of all the other Indian bowlers with the due credit pulled things back in favor of India with their brilliant bowling performance.
After the 2nd wicket which was taken by Axar Patel, Pakistan was in a good position to win the match. Halfway stage of the match Pakistan needed just 50 runs in 53 balls. Then came Hardik Pandya who took the important wicket of Farkhar Zaman bringing India back into the game and giving some hope.
Things then completely turned India's way when Bumrah took the main wicket of Muhammad Rizwan. After this wicket by Bumrah things went in India's favor as Pakistan was left with their out of form middle order batsmen. The middle order batsman collapse as India could see their victory right in front of them and vice versa Pakistan saw their victory being snatched from their jaws.
Pakistan needed eighteen runs in the last over and the responsibility to defend this was given to Arshdeep Singh who successfully defended 18 runs from the last over by taking one wicket and taking India home by defeating Pakistan by six runs.
This win by India marked their 7th victory vs Pakistan in the T20 World Cups history against Pakistan's 1 victory which came in 2021 T20 World Cup. It was also India's 15th win vs Pakistan in the entire World Cup history including ODI and T20I's.
The match results and stats state that this so called "The Greatest Rivalry" has always been one sided traffic, but we can't ignore some matches have been very close encounters. But, in the end it's always been a one sided rivalry which is being hyped due to long history and geopolitical reasons as well.
Jasprit Bumrah received Player of the Match award for his brilliant bowling. It was his second play player of the match award in this World Cup as even in his previous game against Ireland he had received player of the match award. So back-to-back player of the match award in this World Cup for Bumrah.
This defeat for Pakistan has ensured that their chances of qualifying for the Super 8 which is the next round of this World Cup has been reduced as they had lost the first game to the host United States of America as well, which created shockwaves to the cricketing world and Pakistani fans.
As Pakistan defeated Canada today here are the possible qualification scenario below.
Pakistan's Qualification Scenario:
- India beat USA by a huge margin.
- USA loose both their matches against India and Ireland.
- Pakistan defeat Ireland by a huge margin.
USA Qualification Scenario:
- Win at least 1 game from their next two matches vs India and Ireland.
This World Cup match between India and Pakistan gained a lot of attention from the USA media as a huge crowd of over 30,000 people had come for a sporting event in the United States of America. This was a historic moment as ICC's step to promote cricket in USA might not be so successful but it has definitely gained few eyeballs in this country, especially when USA defeated Pakistan and shocked the entire cricketing world and this match of India and Pakistan with a huge crowd in USA bringing curiosity within the common public of the United States of America.
