GRANT Bradburn, the head coach, admitted Pakistan felt intimidated. And being fair to Babar Azam and his charges, nothing else could have been expected from them playing a World Cup match in front of 120,000 people cheering for their home team India at a cauldron of a venue in the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Saturday.

Succumbing to the heat — of the atmosphere and that of the occasion — Pakistan were cooked to perfection and feasted upon by the hosts. To come up with a fight under the given circumstances, required bravery and character.

Pakistan did show it, but only through a small patch of the contest — when Babar and Mohammad Rizwan put up an 82-run partnership after the departures of openers Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique.

Once the stand between the middle-order pairing was broken, the Indian bowlers ripped through the Pakistan line-up before the hosts’ batters raced to the 192-run target in no time to take the match by seven wickets.

For Pakistan, who came into the match after overpowering Netherlands and Sri Lanka, the beating is a much-needed reality check in their pursuit of their first World Cup title since 1992.

For India, on the other hand, it was the continuation of their march towards the prize as they registered their third consecutive win in the 50-over showpiece while also maintaining their unblemished 50-overs World Cup record against their arch-rivals. It now stands at 8-0 in their favour.

“It was a first for all of the players playing here but we didn’t do the occasion justice, the stadium justice,” Bradburn told reporters after the match.

“It is a wonderful stadium and we’ve played in front of a 100 per cent opposition crowd. We’ll take this as an experience where we go now in the World Cup, which isn’t going to be as intimidating as it might have been for some [tonight].”

Babar admitted the middle order and opening bowlers under-performed.

“We started well. We were playing normally but then we had a collapse in the middle order. We did not finish well,” he said at the presentation ceremony.

“Not good for us. The way we started, we were targeting 280 or 290 but the collapse cost us so our total is not good.”

Babar said with such a low total to defend, he needed his fast bowlers to fire from the start.

“With the new ball, we were not up to the mark. If we had been, it might have been a different ball game.”

India had elected to bowl with Babar and Rizwan coming together after Mohammad Siraj and Hardik Pandya had got the better of Abdullah and Imam to leave Pakistan at 2-73 by the 13th over.

Even before Rizwan had arrived, Pakistan captain Babar, who had failed to make his mark in the first two matches of the World Cup, looked in good touch this time, pulling Pandya for consecutive boundaries in the 11th over.

Babar drove pacer Shardul Thakur for some delightful boundaries while Rizwan managed to hit the rope against the Indian spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja as the 50-run partnership between the two Pakistan batters came up at the halfway stage of the innings.

Both Babar and Rizwan seemed to have acclimatised to the atmosphere and were looking fit to shine for the occasion as they took Pakistan gradually forward.

But the accuracy and discipline of the Indian bowlers was still keeping them from firing on all cylinders.

Babar reached his first fifty of the World Cup in 57 balls, carving his seventh boundary through point in the 29th over, just before Siraj struck his off-stump to break the partnership.

It was then Yadav’s turn to trap the incoming Saud Shakil lbw — a decision confirmed after a review — and clean up Iftikhar Ahmed in the same over, the 33rd.

Bumrah then returned to castle Rizwan (49 off 69, seven fours) with an off-cutter. The right-armer then went on to do the same to Shadab Khan and before Pakistan’s tail fell like dominoes.

With the crowd on his back and cheering their names in unison, it was then the Indian captain Rohit Sharma’s turn to absolutely plunder the Pakistan bowlers in his knock of 86 off 63 balls.

The right-hander would go on to hit at will may it be drives through the covers for boundaries or straight down the ground for sixes or even pulls for the same result.

Sharma’s onslaught started off with an effortless demonstration of wrist work for four off Shaheen Shah Afridi’s pace on the very first ball of the innings.

The batter’s opening partner Shubman Gill subjected fast bowler Hasan Ali to three boundaries in the second over but was halted by a stunning catch by Shadab at point off Shaheen in the next over.

It didn’t hurt India much as Sharma carried on, bludgeoning the Pakistan bowlers all around the ground in an innings that saw the right-hander hit six fours and as many sixes before falling to Shaheen in the 22nd over.

Virat Kohli fell to Hasan meanwhile but the incoming Shreyas Iyer (53 not out off 62, three fours and two sixes) played the perfect supporting role with Sharma and took India across the line along with K.L. Rahul with nearly 20 overs to spare.

“I just think we were a little bit timid tonight with our overall performance,” Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur said in the post-match press conference.

“I would have liked us to really take the game on just a little bit more. It’s a massive occasion, as we know, but I think we just went into our shells just a little bit. And to go from 155 for two, if it was, to 190-odd all out is just not on.

“Yeah, credit to India, I thought they bowled really well, but I just thought our performance was just a little bit timid.”

SCOREBOARD

PAKISTAN:

Abdullah Shafique lbw b Siraj 20

Imam-ul-Haq c Rahul b Pandya 36

Babar Azam b Siraj 50

Mohammad Rizwan b Bumrah 49

Saud Shakeel lbw b Kuldeep 6

Iftikhar Ahmed b Kuldeep 4

Shadab Khan b Bumrah 2

Mohammad Nawaz c Bumrah b Pandya 4

Hasan Ali c Gill b Jadeja 12

Shaheen Shah Afridi not out 2

Haris Rauf lbw b Jadeja 2

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2, W-1) 4

TOTAL (all out, 42.5 overs) 191

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-41 (Abdullah), 2-73 (Imam), 3-155 (Babar), 4-162 (Saud), 5-166 (Iftikhar), 6-168 (Rizwan), 7-171 (Shadab), 8-187 (Nawaz), 9-187 (Hasan)

BOWLING: Bumrah 7-1-19-2 (1w); Siraj 8-0-50-2; Pandya 6-0-34-2; Kuldeep 10-0-35-2; Jadeja 9.5-0-38-2; Thakur 2-0-12-0

INDIA:

R. Sharma c Iftikhar b Shaheen 86

S. Gill c Shadab b Shaheen 16

V. Kohli c Nawaz b Hasan 16

S. Iyer not out 53

KL Rahul not out 19

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1) 2

TOTAL (for three wickets, 30.3 overs) 192

Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Gill), 2-79 (Kohli), 3-156 (Rohit)

DID NOT BAT: H. Pandya, R. Jadeja, S. Thakur, J. Bumrah, K. Yadav, M. Siraj

BOWLING: Shaheen 6-0-36-2 (1w); Hasan 6-0-34-1; Nawaz 8.3-0-47-0; Haris 6-0-43-0; Shadab 4-0-31-0

RESULT: India won by 7 wickets

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Jasprit Bumrah

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2023