3 famous wins for Team India against Pakistan in Asia Cup

India and Pakistan have played so many memorable matches in the past. On Team India's part, they had never allowed Pakistan to win even a single 50-over World Cup match against them. It was India all the way as far as World Cup One-Day Internationals were concerned. However, in the Asia Cup, the results were not so overwhelmingly in favour of India.

Having said that, India did manage to win some memorable matches against Pakistan in the Asia Cup where the odds were heavily loaded against India. In one such match, Pakistan, after electing to bat, were 223 for no loss in 35 overs.

In another match, India had to chase down 300 runs and that too in Karachi. This article is about three of those memorable matches where India came from behind to achieve incredible victories against arch-rivals Pakistan.

On the first day of the 14th edition of the Asia Cup, let us explore Team India’s 3 famous wins in the Asia Cup against arch-rivals Pakistan.

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#1 India vs Pakistan at Dhaka on 18th March, 2012

This was a must-win game for India. They were required to win this match with a bonus point to reach the final.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The Pakistan openers, Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed gave their team a spectacular start by adding 224 runs for the first wicket. Both the openers got to their century.

At one stage, Pakistan were 224 for no loss in 35 overs. But at the score of 224, both the openers departed one after the another. That brought about a fall in the scoring rate. Ashok Dinda and Praveen Kumar put the brakes on the scoring rate by claiming 2 wickets each.

Pakistan finished at 329 for 6. They scored just 104 runs in the last 15 overs with plenty of wickets in hand.

India were set a target of 330 to win. India had not chased that much score before. India’s previous best chase was 326 for 8 against England at the Lord’s in the Natwest Series final in 2002. This match will forever be remembered for Sourav Ganguly’s famous shirt waving.

To complicate matters further, India had to reach the target in 40 overs to win with a bonus point to reach the final.

India had a disastrous start when Gautam Gambhir got out to the second ball of the innings. India were 0 for 1. They had the dubious distinction of being the first team in ODIs to lose a wicket without a run on the board after opponent openers put on over-200 runs for the first wicket.

That brought Kohli to the wicket in the very first over itself. The eighth ball that Kohli faced from Umar Gul was a leading edge which flew over backward point for a boundary. The leading edge could have taken the ball anywhere but the ball flew off the leading edge to the backward point boundary.

That was the luck that Kohli needed at the start of his innings. At the other end, Tendulkar was in his fluent best and these two put on 133 runs for the second wicket. Tendulkar reached his 50 off just 45 balls with 5 fours and one six. Meanwhile, Kohli completed his 50 off 52 balls with 6 fours.

However, Sachin got out to Saeed Ajmal’s doosra immediately after reaching his 50. When Tendulkar got out, Kohli was on 73.

Rohit Sharma joined Kohli for the 3rd wicket. Rohit couldn’t get going straightaway as he scored 9 off his first 18 balls. But Kohli was in a murderous form as he reached his 100 off 97 balls with 11 fours. Kohli accelerated after reaching his 100 and Rohit Sharma too joined the party.

These two added 172 runs for the third wicket. Kohli went past his previous highest score of 134 in ODIs. Rohit completed his 50 off 62 balls. Immediately after that, Kohli reached his 150 off 131 balls with 16 fours and one six. He celebrated his 150 by hitting Wahab Riaz for 3 consecutive fours.

India reached 300 for 2 in the 45th over. From 150, Kohli raced to 183 off just 17 balls. Both Kohli and Rohit Sharma got out before India reached the target. Finally, India won the match with 5 overs to spare. Despite Kohli’s fabulous efforts, India could not reach the target in 40 overs to reach the final, which Pakistan did.

In the end, Pakistan went on to win that Asia Cup, beating Bangladesh by 2 runs in the final. But the 2012 Asia Cup in Bangladesh will be remembered for Virat Kohli’s astonishing innings of 183 against arch-rivals Pakistan.

#2 India vs Pakistan at Dambulla on 19th June, 2010

Dhoni and Gambhir put on 98 runs for the 3rd wicket

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Pakistan, helped by Salman Butt (74), Shoaib Malik (39) and Kamran Akmal (51), reached 267 in their allotted 50 overs. For India, Praveen Kumar took 3 wickets while Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh took 2 wickets each.

Chasing 268 for a win, India were 82 for the loss of Sehwag and Kohli’s wickets. When everyone expected Rohit Sharma to come in at the fall of Kohli’s wicket, Captain Dhoni promoted himself in the batting order and walked in at No 4 to join Gautam Gambhir.

To start with, Dhoni was slow but Gambhir at the other end took care of the scoring. Gambhir reached his 50 off 51 balls with 5 fours. India reached 150 in the 32nd over. Dhoni reached his 50 off 53 balls. Gambhir and Dhoni added 98 runs for the 3rd wicket.

Just when the whole of India thought the two batsmen would take their team home, Gambhir was cleaned by Saeed Ajmal for 83 runs off 97 balls. He was soon followed by Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, and Jadeja.

India, from a comfortable position at 208 for 3, slipped to 219 for 6. Saeed Ajmal took 3 wickets in the middle. India needed 49 runs from 5 overs when Harbhajan Singh joined Suresh Raina.

In the 46th over, bowled by Ajmal, Raina hit a six and a four to reduce the target to 36 runs from 24 balls. The 47th over was bowled by Shoaib Akhtar. He bowled a length ball to Harbhajan who deposited the ball into the long-on stands. At the end of the 47th over, India needed 27 runs from 18 balls.

Mohammad Amir bowled the 48th over to Raina. India scored 11 runs in that over to reach 252 for 6 by the end of the 48th over. Akhtar’s first ball of the 49th over was a short one to Raina which sat up nicely on Raina. He pulled it over square leg for a six. In the 49th over, Harbhajan had an altercation with Shoaib Akhtar, which rekindled the spirits of Bhajji.

When Mohammad Amir started the last over, India were 7 runs away from the target. Raina took a single off the first ball. 6 runs were then needed from 5 balls. Harbhajan couldn’t connect the next ball and Raina, in a desperate attempt to get back to strike, called Harbhajan for a bye. But Kamran Akmal got a direct hit and Raina had to leave at a crucial stage of the match.

Now 5 runs were needed from 4 balls. The new batsman, Praveen Kumar guided the third ball of the over to the third man region where Akhtar fumbled to allow Praveen Kumar to come back for the second run. After his row with Harbhajan, Shoaib Akhtar was a little bit rattled.

3 runs were now needed from 3 balls. Praveen Kumar cut the fourth ball to point to take a single.

2 runs now were needed from 2 balls. Mohammad Amir was at the top of his bowling mark as Harbhajan surveyed the field. Amir had a good match until then. All he had to do was to finish well. At the batting end, Harbhajan was fully charged up after his confrontation with Akhtar.

Amir came running in and bowled a length ball to Harbhajan. The latter, with a big swing of the bat, simply smoked that ball over mid-wicket to complete a dramatic win for India. That Harbhajan’s six brought back memories of Javed Miandad’s famous last-ball six off Chetan Sharma. Perhaps it was payback time for Team India. They finally reached the target with just one ball to spare.

To top it all, India won the 2010 Asia Cup, beating the home team Sri Lanka in the final by 81 runs.

#3 India vs Pakistan at Karachi on 26th June, 2008

Sehwag and Raina added 198 runs in 24 overs for the second wicket

Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik won the toss and elected to bat first. Malik scored 125 and Pakistan reached 299 for 4 in 50 overs. That was a huge score for Pakistan on home ground.

Needing 300 for a win, India started badly by losing Gambhir for 9. Suresh Raina came in at No. 3 to join Sehwag. In the third over of Pakistan’s innings, their main strike bowler, Umar Gul left the field after spraining his rib-cage area. That was a big blow for Pakistan as they were one bowler short right from the third over.

Raina was quick to get off the mark as he reached 20 off 14 balls. At the other end, Sehwag was unusually slow as he scored just 2 runs off his first 11 balls. In the 7th over, bowled by Iftikhar Anjum, Sehwag got going with a couple of boundaries. Sohail Tanvir was given the same treatment in the next over as India reached 50 in the 8th over.

Raina at the other end was equally aggressive. Sehwag got into business in the first over bowled by Shahid Afridi by pounding him for 16 runs. India reached 100 in just the 14th over. Raina reached his 50 off 41 balls. Sehwag took a little longer and reached his 50 off 49 balls.

By that time, Pakistan started feeling the absence of Umar Gul. Fawad Alam was brought in to make up the overs of Umar Gul. Alam conceded 12 runs in his first over. At the other end, Afridi was going for plenty and both Sehwag and Raina helped themselves to some easy runs. India reached 150 in just the 20th over.

Fawad Alam’s second over went for 18 runs. Salman Butt, another part-time bowler, was brought in to replace Alam. Sehwag hit him for 2 huge sixes. India reached 200 in the 26th over.

Sehwag reached his 100 off just 80 balls. At the other end, Raina was on queue to get his own hundred. Unfortunately, he got out for 84 runs which came off just 69 balls, with 10 fours and 3 sixes. Raina’s partnership with Sehwag for the second wicket produced 198 runs in less than 24 overs at a run rate 8.25 runs per over. Such was their domination!

Yuvraj came in at the fall of Raina’s wicket. At the other end, Sehwag going for his 6th six, was caught at long-on for 119 runs which came off 95 balls, with 12 fours and 5 huge sixes.

Yuvraj took off from where Sehwag left. Yuvraj, along with Dhoni, brought about India’s 250 in the 36th over. Dhoni, after a quiet start, went on the rampage with Yuvraj. The two put on 63 runs for the 3rd wicket. When they were just 5 runs away from the target, Yuvraj got out for 48, which included 3 towering sixes.

Dhoni finished off the match in his customary style by hitting Younis Khan out of the ground. India won the match by 6 wickets, with 47 balls to spare. India had beaten Pakistan in Pakistan.

As an anti-climax, India lost to Sri Lanka in the final.

Come 19th September 2018, India and Pakistan will be lined up for yet another epic encounter in the Asia Cup.