On Sunday, it was a dominating performance by the Indian team as they defeated Pakistan by 89 runs at Old Trafford in Manchester. With this victory, India moved to the 3rd spot on the Points Table with 7 points, next to Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier, Pakistan’s skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed won the toss and elected to field first. Due to Shikhar Dhawan’s injury, India opened the batting with KL Rahul and vice-captain Rohit Sharma. Both provided India with a solid start, adding 136 runs on the board for the first wicket stand.
Rohit Sharma played a fantastic knock of 140 runs off 113 balls hitting 14 fours and 3 sixes, registering his second century in the tournament. Indian skipper Virat Kohli scored 77 runs, becoming the fastest player to complete 11,000 runs in ODI cricket (222 innings).
Virat Kohli – What a player!https://t.co/BGfI4KhmdA#CWC19 #INDvPAK #PAKvIND #KingKohli pic.twitter.com/9qOcYmu4NQ
— CricketTimes.com (@CricketTimesHQ) June 16, 2019
Chasing a massive score of 337 runs, Pakistan lost quick wickets in the middle overs and were 166-6 in 35 overs before the rain interrupted the play. The match was reduced to 40 overs, with a revised target of 302 runs as per DLS. In the end, Pakistan only managed to score 212/6 in 40 overs, losing the match by a big margin of 89 runs.
The unpleasant news for the Indian fans was the injury of right-hand pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bhuvi stretched his left hamstring during his third over and was forced to leave the field. An official update was issued around the 12th over that Bhuvi would not be able to take part any further in the match.
During the post-match presentation, Indian skipper Virat Kohli provided an update on Bhuvi’s injury, “Bhuvi’s case looks like a niggle, a case of slipping on the footmarks. It doesn’t look too serious at the moment and looks like he could recover in a couple of games from now, a maximum of three games. He is going to be an important factor for us so hopefully, he can recover in time. But we have Shami with us and it shouldn’t be much of a worry for us. Even Bhuvi doesn’t think his niggle is too bad and that time would heal it.”
India will face Afghanistan in their next match at The Rose Bowl in Southampton on 22nd June.
