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The India-Pakistan rivalry is nothing unknown to anyone and when it comes down to the World Cup, it becomes more intense.
India has defeated Pakistan 7 times and never lost to Pakistan in a World Cup match, with the recent one in Manchester.
Thereby, India leads 7-0 in Head to Head comparison in Cricket World Cups.
Here we take a look at head to head encounters between the two sides in World Cup.
1992 – Sydney
The arch-rivals first played each in a World Cup tournament in 1992 edition in Sydney.
India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin elected to bat first after winning the toss. Opener Ajay Jadeja scored 46 while Sachin Tendulkar remained unbeaten at 54 as India scored 216/7 in 49 overs. The match was reduced to 39 overs aside due to slow over-rate from Pakistan.
In reply, Pakistan didn’t start off well and was reduced to 17/2 before Aamer Sohail and Javed Miandad put on a stand of 88 runs for the third wicket. Sohail notched up 60 while Miandad scored 40 but their efforts weren’t enough as Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were bundled out for 173.
India won by 43 runs.
Later Pakistan has crowned the World champions after beating England in final.
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1996 – Bangalore
The second instance of India-Pakistan rivalry in World Cup came in 1996 in Bangalore.
Winning the toss, Azharuddin once again elected to bat and the opener didn’t disappoint. Navjot Singh Sidhu and Tendulkar gave India a solid start as the two stitched a 90-run stand. Sidhu top-scored with 93 while Jadeja struck a brisk 25-ball 45 to help India post 287/8 in 50 overs.
The Pakistan openers Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar too began well and scored 84 for the first wicket before Anwar was undone by Javagal Srinath for 48.
Sohail went on to score 55 before he was cleaned up by Venkatesh Prasad. An interesting incident took place during this match where Sohail hit Prasad for a boundary through covers and sledged him. In return to the left-handed batsman’s sledging, Prasad bowled him on the very next delivery to take perfect revenge.
No other Pakistan batsman was able to survive for a long period of time at the crease and they eventually restricted to 248/9 in 50 overs to hand India a win by 39 runs.
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1999 – Manchester
The third time the two teams met in a World Cup match was in 1999 in Manchester and for the third consecutive time, Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bat against Pakistan.
Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid starred with the bat as Tendulkar scored 45 while Dravid struck a half-century in the process. Captain Azhar too chipped in with some runs and struck a half-century to help India score 227/6 in 50 overs.
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2003 – Centurion
A lot changed in Indian cricket after 2000. They had a new captain in Sourav Ganguly who was trying to build a young team and outplay the controversies that had gathered around the game in India. Ganguly had already achieved results by the time 2003 World Cup arrived.
In 2000, he led a pretty young side to ICC Knockout finals but lost to New Zealand and then won the 2002 NatWest trophy after beating England at Lord’s. Ganguly not only built a team but he converted players into match-winners. From Yuvraj Singh to Zaheer Khan, there were plenty who became Ganguly’s find.
Talking about the World Cup 2003 that took place in South Africa, with the change in the captain, the toss results also changed. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Riding on Saeed Anwar’s 101, Pakistan posted 273/7 in 50 overs.
In reply, India batsmen especially Sachin Tendulkar kept their cool and anchored India to another win by 6 wickets. Tendulkar top-scored with 98 while Yuvraj and Dravid remained unbeaten at 50 and 44 respectively.
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2011 – Mohali
There couldn’t be a bigger World Cup edition than this for the Indian team.
The Men in Blue were once again had gone under a transition with the change in captaincy position and 2007 edition’s dismal run.
MS Dhoni got the captaincy after India lost the 50-over World Cup in 2007. They lost to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and were knocked out in the first round. Though things did change in that year as India were later crowned champions in the inaugural T20 World Cup but 2011 was huge.
Another aspect of this World Cup was that this was Tendulkar’s last one and despite being a part of the Indian dressing room for so many years, he didn’t have any World Cup in his kitty.
India and Pakistan met again in a World Cup in 2011 semi-final in Mohali. India batted first and courtesy, some sloppy fielding from Pakistan and batting by Tendulkar and Suresh Raina, India managed to put 260/9 in allotted 50 overs. Wahab Riaz returned with a fifer as he sent Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan back in the hut.
In reply, Pakistan batsmen once again faltered on the big occasion and were bowled out for 231 runs. India won the match by 29 runs and eventually lifted the trophy after beating Sri Lanka in the final.
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2015 – Adelaide
India went in the tournament as defending champions. India batted first against Pakistan in Adelaide and rode on Virat Kohli’s 107 to post 300/7. Pakistan never looked comfortable during the chase and was all out for 224.
This was Virat’s 2nd World Cup Century and 22nd in Overall ODIs. Here’s the list of Virat Kohli ODI Centuries!
India won the match by 76 runs.
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2019 – Manchester
“Wasn’t a contest” was the exact words from Harsha Bhogle in his Twitter post, post the game.
India was the dominant team in every way possible.
Rohit Sharma’s ton set the stage for Team India, and then it was the medium pacers and Kuldeep’s show all-around.
As a result, Virat Kohli led Indian team defeated Pakistan by 89 Runs (D/L Method).
With that, India extended their lead to 7-0 in World Cups.
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You can reach the author of this article at @ SOMYA KAPOOR
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