Australia beat South Africa in the first match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. In match number 2, England trounced defending champions West Indies and Sri Lanka got the better of Bangladesh in match no 3. But it was the India Pakistan faceoff we were all waiting for. The men in blue were looking to carry on their tradition of beating Pakistan in World Cup encounters, but the law of averages caught up with us. Indian viewers were full of confidence going into the match; confidence that was unfounded in the end. Take a look:
Confidence was high because of the great performances of Indian players during the IPL, the mentorship of M S Dhoni and because history!
Passionate cricket fans on either side of the border have been known to do violence to helpless electronics when their team loses to the other. It was expected this time as well.
They elected to field first at the Dubai International Stadium. Indian fans were out in force.
Rohit Sharma was out without scoring off the first ball he faced, K L Rahul departed making 3 off 8.
Virat Kohli played a skipper's knock with his doughty 57 off 49. The only other innings of note was Rishabh Pant with 39 off 30
We expected the much-vaunted Indian batting lineup to perform. It did not.
Reality was this.
Shaheen Afridi is the latest in a seemingly endless supply of unplayable Pak fast bowlers. He claimed the wickets of the openers as well as Kohli.
The Indian batsmen never really seemed to get going and managed only a modest 151/7.
Things don’t go our way? Blame the selectors for their selection.
Openers Mohammad Rizwan (79 off 55) and Babar Azam (68 off 52) were relentless; taking their team to victory with unwavering determination.
We couldn’t take a single Pak wicket and it was all over by the 18th over.
They made it look easy.
This is the match in a nutshell for us Indian supporters.
For the Pakistani cricket supporters, this has been a long time coming. The jinx was finally broken for them; the law of averages caught up with us.
He's the one who breaks TVs and has all those un-burst firecrackers. He can die peacefully now, says this tweet.
Someone has to lose. The job is to keep trying and doing one's best.
In the end, Indian supporters can appreciate that it was a masterful performance by the Pakistani players and that the Indian players were simply outplayed. There will be other matches --- some may be laughing on the other side of their faces then.
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