India extended their unbeaten run against Pakistan at the World Cup by clinching a comfortable win in Manchester. India posted a total of 336/6 on the board and Sarfaraz Ahmed‘s men lost more than half their side before rain came calling post the 35th over of Pakistan’s innings.
Pakistan gets undone by Indian batters
Having won the toss, Pakistan elected to bowl first but faced the wrath of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. The openers went on to score 136 runs for the first wicket. Rohit made 140 while Rahul scored 57. Virat Kohli took the game from there on and went on to make 77. Pacer Mohammed Amir was impressive once again for the men in green. He bowled in the right areas and troubled the openers early on. But the rest of the bowlers hardly played the supporting act. At the presentation, Sarfaraz highlighted the same thing. “We won a good toss but didn’t bowl in the right areas, and Rohit played very well. Our plan was to pitch the ball up to Rohit, but we didn’t execute it well. It was a good toss to win but we didn’t capitalize on it.” he said
On picking Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan, he said “We picked two spinners because of the moisture. The credit goes to India’s batsmen for bowling so well. We also lost the match in those three overs where we lost four wickets. Fakhar and Imam were going really well, but we collapsed after that”.
With this 89-run loss(D/L), Pakistan will now have to win almost all of their remaining games to progress to the knock-out stages. The skipper is aware of the scenario as they will have their work cut out.”Definitely, it’s getting tougher and now e have to win all remaining games.”