With the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 round the corner, and India playing Pakistan in its first game of the tournament, the cricketing world is about to witness yet another clash between two of the fiercest opponents. The India-Pakistan rivalry in the game of cricket is nothing new.
Here are some trivial facts about this rivalry…
In 2011, during the ICC World Cup semifinal between India and Pakistan, a viewership of around 998 million was measured, about television viewers alone. In India only, the estimated television rating was 11.74 per cent for the whole match. The Indian fans and viewers weren’t let down by their team, who drubbed its opposition by 29 runs and qualified for the final against Sri Lanka. Also, tickets for the India-Pakistan match in the 2015 ICC World Cup were sold out just 12 minutes after they went on sale. This match also ended up being for the Men in Blue, who beat the men in green by 76 runs.
Saeed Anwar, a former Pakistani cricketer, who also captained the team in seven tests and 11ODIs, is the only cricketer to score a century in an India-Pakistan match in World Cup. In the 2003 World Cup, he scored 101 off 126 balls against India, becoming the first and only cricketer to have scored a century in an India-Pakistan game in World Cups, although his team lost. Anwar dedicated this century to his daughter, who passed away in 2001.
India has played Pakistan 11 times in the 50-over World Cup and the World T20. It has won 10 matches out of the 11, proving its capabilities against one of the world’s most competitive teams in cricket. What’s interesting is the fact that the 11th match between these two teams, in the 2007 World T20 in Durban, was also won by India through bowl-out.
The India versus Pakistan ODI series that took place in Karachi in 2003-04 saw a world record. The first ODI saw both the teams cumulatively scoring a mammoth 693 runs, creating a world record for most number of runs scored in an ODI. India, who batted first, scored 349, and Pakistan in reply could score only 344, losing to India by a margin of five runs.
When Pakistan toured India in 2004-05 for an ODI series, M. S. Dhoni scored 148 runs in the second ODI, which included four sixes, propelling India to an impressive total of 356, beating its opponent by 58 runs. In the following year, when India toured Pakistan for a Test series, the second Test saw M. S. Dhoni scoring a similar 148 runs, which also included four sixes, though the match ended in a draw. Coincidence?
Compiled by Varsha Ganesh
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