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A day of no handshakes, and for Pakistan many head shakes. India coasted to victory in what became global cricket’s most lucrative mismatch after a superlative innings from the opener Ishan Kishan skewed it definitively in their favour. In its second half a game that was dramatically off and then on again became one where a parade of Pakistan batters were dramatically in and then out again. Chasing a target of 176 they were seven down before they even got halfway, and were eventually skittled for 114 to lose by 61 runs.
Kishan’s innings was a glorious anomaly, the 27-year-old thriving on a surface that few came to terms with. Only one other player struck more than three fours; Kishan hit 10. Nobody else produced more than a single six; Kishan managed three. In all he hit 77 runs off 40 balls, the extent to which he stood out illustrated by the fact that when he was dismissed he had scored 88.5% of his team’s runs. “Ishan thought something out of the box. Someone needed to take responsibility and he did that amazingly,” said Suryakumar Yadav, the India captain.
Pakistan won the toss and very little else. India’s Suryakumar Yadav said he had been planning to bat first anyway, but for Salman Agha a turning pitch was a gift that he could not wait to unwrap. The Pakistan captain insisted on getting his hands on it before anyone else, bowling himself at the start of the match – the first time in eight matches this year that he has bowled at all – and for a few halcyon moments his team was on top.
That opening over brought only one run and the wicket of Abhishek Sharma, who came into the tournament as the most feared batter in world cricket but in two World Cup appearances has now faced five balls and scored no runs. Perhaps things would have been different had Salman’s luck not flipped in his second over, when Kishan twice miscued the ball into the air: the first time it flew just too far for the fielder at backward point to reach, the second it flew not quite far enough for the man at long-on to catch.
But Pakistan’s array of spinners – they bowled only two overs of seam – rarely discomforted Kishan after that. “Our spinners had an off day,” Salman said. “The pitch played better in the second innings but we did not bowl according to the situation and we did not apply ourselves with the bat.”
But while Kishan was motoring at nearly two runs a ball, Tilak Varma at the other end was barely managing one, as did Yadav after his dismissal. It was clear from those batters’ travails that India had posted a challenging target, and Pakistan’s chances of overhauling it existed only briefly. It would be tempting to note that their response started in the worst possible fashion were it not for the fact that if anything it got worse after that.
Hardik Pandya started and finished it, opening proceedings with a wicket maiden, and ending them by ripping out Usman Tariq’s middle stump with the last ball of the 18th over. Jasprit Bumrah bowled the second over of the innings and after he dismissed Saim Ayub with his second ball, a brilliant inswinging yorker, for the second time in the game, Salman was required to lead by example. He flubbed his fourth delivery, in a slow and miserable arc to Pandya at mid-on. Realistically for Pakistan to have stood any kind of chance, they needed their top four to produce at least one lasting partnership. Those key batters combined scored 15 off 17.
Victory confirms the co-hosts’ qualification for the Super Eights with a game to spare, and if the extent of this defeat means that, with one game to play, Pakistan sit humiliatingly below the USA in the Group A standings on net run rate they will only surrender their place in the next round if they lose their final match to Namibia across town at the Sinhalese Sports Club on Wednesday.
“We have a game in a couple of days and we have to look forward to it,” Salman said. “We need to win that and qualify. Then it is a new tournament.”
