Pakistan registered their first World Cup victory over India as they defeated their arch-rivals by 10 wickets in the recently concluded 2021 T20 World Cup. The tone of the match was set by Pakistan’s ace left-arm pacer, Shaheen Afridi, as he dismissed India’s dangerous opening pair within the first three overs of the innings.
India’s biggest strength in limited-overs cricket is their top order batting consisting of the likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. The three batters have the ability to score big and take the game away from the opposition in just a few overs of a match. India’s new T20 captain, Rohit Sharma, in particular, has scored heavily against Pakistan and was the highest run-scorer in the previous encounter between the two sides in the 2019 ICC ODI Cricket World Cup.
Sharma’s upfront wicket was crucial for Pakistan to get a strong grip over the game and his dismissal in the first over of the match put India on the backfoot.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Ramiz Raja, while talking on a podcast interview with BBC, revealed that he had a chat with Babar Azam prior to the start of the T20 World Cup where the two discussed the strategy to beat India. Ramiz revealed that he advised Babar to take the wicket of Rohit Sharma early on in the innings which would put India on the backfoot. He shared tips on how to get the batter out.
“I can tell you how to get rid of Rohit Sharma right now and Babar was intrigued. I said get Shaheen Afridi bowling at 100mph, get a man at short-leg and a 45. Just bowl that inswinging yorker at 100mph and do not give him a single and keep him on strike. You will get him out,” Ramiz remarked.
Shaheen Afridi got Sharma out on the fourth ball of the innings and then got rid of KL Rahul in the third over to rattle the Indian batting unit. Pakistan chased down the target comfortably to hand them their first win over their arch-rivals in World Cup history.
