Rohit and Bumrah star as India cruise past Pakistan with ease

India v Pakistan, scorecard

Pakistan lost eight wickets for 36 runs as they collapsed from 155/2 to 191 all out, before Rohit Sharma’s outstanding 86 helped steer his team to victory.

Five Indian bowlers were among the wickets, all taking two apiece, with Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav sparking the collapse with superb spells, after Mohammed Siraj had prised out the key wicket of Babar Azam.

Babar top-scored with a fine half-century, his first in ODIs against India, but needed to captain spectacularly and hope for brilliance from his bowlers to deny India in their chase of such a relatively low target.

And Rohit’s sublime knock at the top of the order made India’s reply extremely comfortable, with Shreyas Iyer bringing up his own half-century with the winning runs.

The first half of this hugely-anticipated match was where the result was effectively decided.

India captain Rohit won the toss in front of a huge home crowd and elected to bowl first, with the tournament hosts making one change to their playing XI, with a now-fit Shubman Gill coming into the XI in place of Ishan Kishan.

But Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq got Pakistan’s innings off to a fast start, targeting the bowling of Siraj particularly while remaining largely watchful against Bumrah from the other end.

The pair had put on 41 in eight overs before Siraj hit back, having Shafique trapped lbw for 20. And his opening partner was back in the hutch after the powerplay when he edged behind off Hardik Pandya.

With the scoring rate still reasonably high and Pakistan’s big-name pair at the crease, there was still plenty of hope for a big first-innings score, particularly after Babar got among runs pretty quickly, hitting three fours against Hardik Pandya in his first 10 balls.

Babar and Mohammad Rizwan gave Pakistan the platform from which they would have hoped to have reached a sizeable score, with their partnership of 82 helping the total up to 155/2.

But the captain fell just moments after reaching his first ODI half-century in matches against India, cleaned up by a beauty from Siraj that rattled into the top of off stump.

Babar’s departure proved the turning point as Pakistan collapsed, with Kuldeep striking twice to remove Saud Shakeel (6) and Iftikhar Ahmed (4) in the same over.

While Shakeel was trapped lbw, Iftikhar was cleaned up while trying to sweep a wrong 'un.

Sensing the chance to wrap things up quickly, Rohit brought Bumrah back into the attack, and it worked like a charm.

First he cleaned up the set Rizwan one short of a half-century, with a slow off-cutter doing the trick. And in his very next over, Bumrah got one to land on the surface and curve in towards Shadab Khan's off-stump, cleaning up the batter in the process.

Ravindra Jadeja wrapped things up by removing Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf as Pakistan slid to a disappointing total of just 191.

Of the six Indian bowlers used, only Shardul Thakur was not amongst the wickets, with Bumrah, Siraj, Pandya, Yadav and Jadeja all taking two.

India made a rapid start to their reply, with Rohit finding the boundary off the very first ball of the innings, and the returning Gill putting Hasan Ali to the sword with three fours in four balls in the second over.

But Shaheen Afridi did give Pakistan a boost when he prised out the attacking Gill, who was well caught by Shadab Khan at point for 16 off 11 balls.

Wickets in the powerplay were key to Pakistan’s chances of making a game of it, but Rohit and Virat Kohli added a further 56 runs for the second wicket, with the skipper playing brilliant attacking cricket, hitting his 300th six in ODI cricket along the way.

Hasan Ali removed Kohli for 16 off 18 with just one ball of the first Powerplay remaining, but with India on 79/2 and Rohit looking superb out in the middle, the chase looked under control.

The skipper brought up his fifty off just 36 balls and had made the game all-but safe when he was dismissed for 86 from 63 balls by Afridi.

And it was Iyer who hit the winning runs for India, stroking a boundary to finish unbeaten on 53* from 62 balls, with KL Rahul 19* at the other end.

India’s seven-wicket win came with 19.3 overs still remaining, giving the tournament hosts another huge boost to their net run rate.

This was the eighth time that India and Pakistan have met at a men’s Cricket World Cup and the eighth time that India have come out on top.

Victory moves India to the top of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 table, ahead of New Zealand on net run rate, with both teams having won three from three.

Pakistan remain fourth and well in the hunt for a semi-final spot despite the disappointing nature of this defeat.