If you are a cricket fan, especially from India or Pakistan, you know what an India Pakistan encounter means to the two teams and even more so, for the two countries.
Pakistan holds the aces till now in terms of more wins than losses against India in Sharjah and overall India-Pakistan matches.
For Indian fans, the World Cups (across both ODIs and T20s) have been the lucky charm, with a record of 12-0 in India's favor.
Until of course, what happened yesterday.
After 29 long years, Pakistan finally opened their account of winning a match against India in a World Cup with a complete mauling and outplayed India in every department.
Right then, we are now at 12-1.
First things first: Truly well played, Pakistan!!
Pakistan
The team that played better cricket on the day was clearly Pakistan and thoroughly deserved to win yesterday. As Virat Kohli rightly said, Pakistan was able to peg India back right from the start:
1) The toss
Of course, that's good luck to win an important toss but it was still a good, brave call for a team that has traditionally been better at defending than at chasing. Don't forget, it would have been very easy to belittle the decision, had the Indians put up a daunting total and the Pakis would have failed to chase it.
With the benefit of hindsight, countless self-appointed experts would have chimed in with pearls of wisdom like "You won the toss and yet to put the Indian line-up in!", "We are not good chasers, bowling is our strength, still you relied on your weakness", etc. Credit to Pakistan for sticking to what they believed in, and most importantly, for executing it well enough to ensure that their performance matched their plans.
2) The bowling in Green, led by Shaheen
Pakistan has always been a paradise for bowlers. Even at their very lowest, Pakistan have never struggled to have good bowlers. So it was no surprise to see them do creditably well with the ball. But what did matter was the fact that even after Shaheen's fiery opening burst, their entire bowling unit followed one good spell after another, applying relentless pressure, and just not letting the Indian batsmen go off the hook.
Led by Shaheen, the bowlers backed the captain's call, never let the runs flow, and always kept India's batsmen in check. One often uses the term Bravo with West Indies cricketers, referring to a Dwayne nor a Darren Bravo, but this time, it is to applaud the entire Pakistani bowling unit - top stuff, guys - Bravo!
3) Captaincy
As captain, Babar made smart bowling changes that never allowed the batsmen to settle to any particular bowler. Very intelligent and tactical captaincy by the Pakistan captain - quite astutely done, Babar!
It was also quite impressive to see that he kept his flock in check in terms of their expressiveness and emotions. While everyone seemed high on energy and intensity, no one went overboard or abusive or unusually aggressive. Most importantly, this held true even after the win, when things could have easily gone out of hand. But it seemed that Babar's overall calm persona reflected in every Pakistani's approach - when they were natural ecstatic and thrilled when taking wickets or catches and obviously after winning, but were never so jingoistic or xenophobic to be rude or too in-your-face.
4) Fielding
Another aspect that might easily get ignored from this match was Pakistan's absolutely top-class fielding. Be it their catching, commitment, energy or the ground fielding, everything was quite electric in this match.
All these are adjectives that typically do not go in the same breath while referring to Pakistan's fielding. Which is why, it makes their fielding effort all the creditable. Flawless stuff from Pakistan, and as a cricket lover, one hopes that they maintain this standard to be a better team and do not let their bowlers down as often as they normally have.
5) Babar and Rizwan (entire Pakistan batting on the day)
Talking of flawless, the way Babar and Rizwan pummeled India's bowling was perhaps the most astonishing part of the day. True, it was not the greatest-ever score from India but at the halfway stage, even the staunchest Pakistani supporter wouldn't have picked Pakistan to run away with the match the way they did, and win by 10 wickets. Extremely smart batting by pre-empting the bowlers' plans, rotating the strike constantly, running niftily between the wickets, and playing the big (but risk-free) shots when required.
Sure, the dew helped them but credit should still be given where due. Babar and Rizwan deserve a huge round of applause for the way they identified who to target and who to be watchful against and see off, if required (as with Varun and Bumrah's initial overs). And after the 10-over stage in the Pakistan innings, with no swing and more due, it was just one-way traffic from there on.
India
On India's side, it was quite a forgettable day when almost whatever that could go wrong, did go wrong.
1) Below par, all round, all day
Apart from Virat and to an extent, Rishabh, Varun and Bumrah, no one else managed even a decent outing. We were outplayed in all departments, right through the course of the match.
Perhaps there was a flutter of hope when Virat and Rishabh were batting together but just when it was time to press the accelerator, Rishabh perished and Virat came tumbling after. Likewise for when Varun and Bumrah began applying pressure in their initial overs but then leaked runs and went wicketless.
2) Insipid bowling
Most disappointingly, our bowling was lackadaisical, toothless, too defensive too early, and bereft of plans.
Forget picking up wickets, I had a hard time even recalling when (if ever) the Pakistani batsmen (of course, we saw only two - the opening pair through the entire innings) were even beaten by any ball from anyone.
If you pitch on middle and leg line, bowl too short or too full, you are expecting only miracles or mistakes from the batsmen, you are giving yourself only two chances to get batsmen out: either by them making a mistake or through some divine miracle (like a possible six being converted to a catch).
Our bowlers, especially Shami and Bhuvi, were too wayward in their lines and lengths. Too much on middle and leg, not enough changes in pace, the slower balls were too clear and easy to not be picked and scored off. Our bowlers are typically much, much better than that, but unfortunately, yesterday was certainly not one such day.
3) Subdued by the dew
The only hope left was of watching Pakistan self-implode. But they did not, as the imperious Babar and the sublime Rizwan steered them home with consummate ease. If that wasn't enough, midway through the Pakistan innings, it was time for the dew too.
Of course, the dew must have made matters worse but I suspect good line and length is very much a part of our "controllables". Balls pitching on or outside off stump and then changing course - coming in or going out or holding their line - were too few and far between.
4) The current, listless Bhuvi is a concern
Despite being a Bhuvi-fan for long, it has been 3 consecutive bad days for him now. After a very average (even below-average) IPL where he got clobbered in the death overs, Bhuvi has leaked runs and has not even picked wickets in the two warm-ups and now yesterday. It's not even a matter of taking wickets or being economical. One must look like taking wickets. The form he is in, his bowling has just not been incisive enough to inspire any confidence till now.
For a player of his class and pedigree, and with swinging conditions to boot, one had hoped for him to be lethal with the ball, at least in the initial overs. Instead, he looked a pale shadow of himself and with three poor games on the trot, perhaps we might need to reassess what should be done with respect to his role and contributions.
5) Shardul for Hardik
And, speaking of pale shadows, with Hardik hurting his shoulder while batting and not taking the field, Shardul could well be in the XI soon. Lord Shardul is a no-brainer replacement for Hardik - can bat well, has become a much better bowler in recent months, and also has the happy knack of picking wickets, including those of crucial batsmen - in short, a captain's delight.
It also spoke wonderfully of Virat's sportsman spirit as well as character to see how he was so gracious, warm and effusive in praising and mingling with the Pakistani team, especially Shaheen, Babar and Rizwan). Classy stuff that, great for the sport, and long may this continue!
Whatever be the reasons for India's defeat (sorry, thrashing) at Pakistan's hands, there are still some positives from the match for India:
1) An albatross off our necks
If Pakistan have taken the monkey off their back by finally winning a World Cup match against us, India also had the victory record of NEVER HAVING LOST in World Cups against them. This record was like an albatross, because, as MS Dhoni had stated earlier after another Indian win the last time around, it created an unnecessary pressure on Indians too. After all, who can guarantee an all-win record forever? At least, with this loss, there won't be a NEVER HAVING WON / NEVER HAVING LOST chatter anymore. Thank God for that!
2) It can only get better from here
The good thing about a comprehensive defeat is that it jolts quality players like never before. Sure, it hurts, as it should, for it galvanizes players to do that much more, going forward.
Even from a simple law of averages perspective, a completely lopsided, off-color performance comes only once in a while. And given the fact that this is not a team that would keep getting beaten especially the way it did yesterday, bouncing back is a given, and only a matter of time.
What is most important is to ensure that the team keeps believing in itself, gets the support from its fans (because now is the time when it needs it the most), and remains confident about delivering its best at all times. We are still THE team to beat on any day against any opposition, if our XI play to even 90% of their potential.
Just as no team can become good overnight, the converse remains equally applicable. Biased opinions aside, everyone knows India is quality side. Most importantly, the team itself is quite mature and aware. They must know that they are a top side, so it's just about picking the lessons from this game and moving on afresh. Many more frontiers are waiting to be conquered!
3) Team bonding
If you are a top quality side like India, such a loss would always hurt. And then, if you lose against your arch-rivals, it is bound to spur you to achieve bigger glory even more. This is when the team bonds that much more and clicks as a whole.
A lot is spoken about India's 36 all out but what happened after that in the very same series?! (I know, it's Test cricket but the point on team bonding and approach remains the same and is format-agnostic). In other words, a loss can truly bring a top team together like never before to go for greater glory. We might have lost the battle but we can still win the war!
5) Fans' support
As a crestfallen Indian fan, when I went to bed last night, I was wondering what must be going through the minds of our players. If I was feeling so hurt, I can trust that someone like Rohit, Rahul, Virat himself, and in fact everyone in the team must be seething from inside. Not out of revulsion or hatred for the loss but out of having not performed even half as well as what they are capable of, both individually as well as collectively. Let's spare a moment to put ourselves in their shoes and at least be civil and empathetic before pronouncing inane expert solutions.
For a team that has given us countless moments of world-beating glory, Isn't it our duty to support them when they are themselves hurting and self-aware? Mind you, while everyone had a poor outing, no one seemed irresponsible or lacking intent and effort.
They know they had a bad game. It's not as if our abusing or blaming them will add any value to their knowledge. If anything, it will only deflate their morale, which is something they do not deserve. And of course, this holds equally true for the Pakistani side too - had they lost (or like they have lost earlier in World Cups), their cricketers also never deserve(d) to face the wrath and flak of their public and fans the way subcontinental fans have often vented their emotions.
Sure, one can be disappointed, even unhappy with team selection, approach, performance, magnitude of loss, way of playing - all that is fine but not at the expense of believing that the players could care even an iota less than they actually do.
In fact, as players, they are trying and working much more than we know, day in and day out, to give their best. It's just that we should neither take things to stratospheric proportions when our teams are on the right side of the result nor should we begin ascribing ulterior motives or become self-anointed experts to pronounce judgements on who did what wrong and why, without having done or known even a fraction about the effort and full context behind what these players put in, giving their all and more, to pursue excellence every single day - irrespective of whatever result is achieved.
Let's ensure we throw our weight behind our Boys in Blue now. This is the time when a team needs its supporters the most. We know you WILL bounce back.
Great performance, Pakistan and totally well-deserved. You can well be a finalist in such form and who knows, we might have an India and Pakistan final too - a la CT17 with transposed results - from the results of the league stage and finals! Same teams, exchanged results!
Well played, Team Green. With you, Team Blue!!
Jai Ho!
