World Cup 2019: Three mistakes that cost Pakistan the match against India

Cricket’s most hyped encounter began at Old Trafford with the threat of rain playing in everyone’s brain. Coming into this game, India were still unbeaten in the tournament while Pakistan had lost a well-fought encounter against Australia. India was looking to extend their dominance against Pakistan in World Cup encounters by registering their 7th victory against arch-rivals.

On a dry surface, Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and elected to bowl first. For India, Shikhar Dhawan’s injury meant that KL Rahul was promoted to open the batting with Vijay Shankar batting at number 4. Pakistan dropped Shaheen Afridi and replaced him with the left arm spinner Imad Wasim.

India began their innings in a controlled manner as they saw off Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali without much fuss. Rohit Sharma looked in great touch and cruised to his fastest half-century in ODI cricket. After the fall of Rahul, Virat Kohli provided ample support to Rohit and kept the scoreboard ticking. Rohit departed for 140, his second century in this World Cup and Pandya joined Kohli at the crease. Amir bowled brilliantly in the death overs but India finished with a very competitive score of 336/5.

Chasing a monumental target of 337, Pakistan struggled to get going in the initial overs. Bhuvneshwar’s injury came as a blessing in disguise for India as Vijay Shankar removed Imam-ul-Haq in his very first ball. Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman stitched together a century partnership and brought Pakistan back into the game.

Just when the pair was threatening to take the game away from India, Kuldeep Yadav bowled an absolute peach to knock off Babar Azam. He dismissed Fakhar Zaman in his next over and this spell completely took the momentum off Pakistan’s run chase.

Hardik Pandya effectively ended the match by dismissing Hafeez and Malik in back to back deliveries. Due to rain intervention, the match was reduced to 40 overs and India won comfortably by 89 runs. Here are the 3 mistakes that proved to be costly for Pakistan.

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#1 Lack of planning against Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma

By now it has become common knowledge that bowling short to Rohit Sharma won’t be effective irrespective of the conditions and the bowler’s skills. His immaculate ability to pull the ball off the front foot itself makes it easier for him to counter the short ball strategy. It is also very well known that he is suspect to the moving ball early in his innings.

Irrespective of all these established facts, Pakistan new ball bowlers hardly tried to swing the new ball by pitching it full against Rohit. Hasan Ali did get some movement off the surface but it just wasn’t enough to trouble him. The Pakistani bowlers allowed him to cut and pull effectively and they paid the price for it at the end of the day. Even the spinners failed to trouble him with flight and dip and opted to bowl a lot flatter to him.

#2 Missed run out chances

Pakistan missed a few crucial runouts

Pakistan’s fielding has never been outstanding but in a high-pressure game such as this one against India, it is not too much to expect them to do the basics right on the field. KL Rahul nudged the first ball of the 10th over bowled by Wahab Riaz into the midwicket region and ran a single. But in a complete brain fade moment, Rohit Sharma came back for the second run without any call from Rahul. Rohit was caught in no man’s land and would have been out by miles if not for Fakhar’s careless throw to the non-striker end.

In the next over, Rohit again ran a very tight single and a decent throw from Shadab Khan would have meant the end of Rohit. These two moments proved to be game-changing as he used these lifelines effectively to score a big hundred and was the main factor in India’s 7th victory against Pakistan in World Cup cricket.

#3 Sarfraz Ahmed’s captaincy

Sarfraz Ahmed

There are already several question marks over Sarfraz Ahmed’s role in this Pakistan team and the criticism is bound to increase after some strange decision making in this game. Pakistan’s strength is their bowling attack and their batting is known to crumble during big chases. But in such a high-pressure game and against a quality Indian batting lineup, Sarfraz decided to bowl first and the move backfired severely.

If he had decided to bat first, his decision to play two spinners would have made more sense as there was a lot of turn for Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the second innings. He gave just 2 overs to Wahab Riaz in his opening spell and persisted with the expensive Shadab Khan until the 23rd over. He brought back Riaz in the 24th over and he did provide a breakthrough but by that time India already had a solid platform to their innings.