India-Pakistan cricket match always remains in one of the top priority matches. If these arch-rivals meet in any tournament, that match has a separate value from that tournament. In this special clash, both teams desperately want to finish as the winning team.
Soon, India and Pakistan will meet in the round-robin stage of the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup at Manchester (16th June 2019). Before this match, India and Pakistan have faced each other many times in the ICC tournaments. Though Pakistan has never beaten India in the ICC Cricket World Cup or the ICC World T20, Pakistan has beaten India thrice in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Ahead of their upcoming clash, here are the top five India-Pakistan matches in ICC tournament history.
Wills World Cup 1996: Quarter-Final
In 1996 Cricket World Cup, India and Pakistan faced each other in the quarter-final at Bengaluru (9th March 1996). After winning the toss, Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin chose to bat first. Indian opening batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu played a crucial knock of 93 runs in that first innings. Sidhu and Sachin Tendulkar put an opening partnership of 90 runs that set India to manage a good first innings total.
In the middle-order, Ajay Jadeja made an essential contribution as he scored 45 runs off 25 balls. Finally, India managed to score 287/8 in 50 overs.
Among the Pakistan bowlers, Waqar Younis (2/67) and Mushtaq Ahmed (2/56) bagged two wickets.
Chasing down that target, Pakistan openers Saeed Anwar and the captain Aamer Sohail provided a brilliant start of an 84-run partnership. However, once that partnership was broken, Pakistan lost the next wickets at regular intervals and managed to score 248/9 (49 overs). The top two run-scorers in that innings were Aamer Sohail (55 runs) and Saeed Anwar (48 runs).
While India won that match by 39 runs, Venkatesh Prasad (3/45) and Anil Kumble (3/48) played the crucial roles with the ball in hand.
The iconic moment in that match was in the 15th over of Pakistan’s innings. After hitting a four to the Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad, Aamer Sohail pointed Prasad towards the boundary by using his bat. On the very next ball, Prasad bowled Sohail, and that became the turning point of that match.