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.
#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.