Is there a reason why India always beats Pakistan in World Cups

Seven nil. If you are a Pakisatni fan you just got a chill. If you’re Indian, a thrill. Somehow India has managed to beat Pakistan in all seven of their World Cup matches.

How bad did it get, well England had to invent a new format of cricket just so Pakistan would win at a World Cup?

And so here we find ourselves, staring at number eight, but it does beg the question, how the hell have Pakistan managed to lose seven games in World Cups against India.

is there a reason why India always beats Pakistan in Cricket World Cup

Table of Contents

The big match

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to better assess this rather bizarre paradigm. India vs Pakistan is arguably the highest billing match ups across all sport, and while it might not produce high quality contests every single time, it always brings with it an ocean of hype. As an event, they work, even if as sport, they often don’t. If you think fans love it, that is nothing compared to broadcasters and cricket administrators.

Now cricket is literally rigged to ensure these two nations bump uglies as much as possible in major events. India Pakistan comes with its own personal rain day.

Considering how it is every broadcaster’s dream game, you might be surprised to know that in the first four editions of the ODI World Cup, the two Asian heavyweights did not square up against each other once.

India vs Pakistan history in cricket

1992 was the first time both sides faced one another in cricket’s premier competition, and while Pakistan did go on to lift that World Cup in the MCG eventually, they fell short vs India by 43 runs in Sydney, failing to chase a modest total of 217. Sachin produced an all-round performance, and Imran’s men succumbed under the pressure of chasing, in a game which they really should have won.

You will come to note that pressure and chasing is a recurring theme in this discourse, as we traverse through the later editions of the World Cup. 1996 is perhaps the most prime example of this phenomenon, when the two powerhouses met in Bengaluru with an awful lot at stake. Pakistan captain Wasim Akram was not available for selection in the all-important quarter-final, and an Ajay Jadeja blitz at the end meant that India had stockpiled 287 runs in their first innings – a mammoth total in that era.

Pakistan got off to a blistering start, even by modern day standards, having scored 84 in the first 10 overs without losing a single wicket. On the first ball of the 11th over, Saeed Anwar fell to Srinath, and then came the famous Venatekh Prasad moment, who cleaned up an animated Aamer Sohail, giving life to what is now an evergreen highlight in World Cup lore. From that point onwards it all went downhill for Pakistan, who eventually lost by a margin of 39 runs.

Old Trafford 1999 is another interesting one. Pakistan played the final of that World Cup, and were a supreme limited overs side. India were a team on the rise, and would not have felt confident with the 228 run target that they had set Pakistan to chase. Venkatesh Prasad had other plans, however, who this time obliterated Pakistan’s batting lineup with a 5 wicket haul, adding more pages to his personal World Cup legend vs familiar foes. The notion of ‘Pakistan losing the battle of nerves’ was now very much real, and would come back to haunt them in future World Cups.

Up until the turn of the millennium, you could argue that Pakistan was the more skillful side between the two Asian giants. Their head to head record vs India spoke for itself. The change of guard officially took place in Centurion in 2003, when a Sourav Ganguly led Indian team chased down 274 vs a Pakistani pace attack featuring Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, and Shoaib Akhtar, in the 46th over. Granted that the two Ws were past their prime, this victory did more for Indian cricket than any of the previously mentioned World Cup bouts. Sachin’s 98, and that six over third man vs peak Shoaib, went on to inspire a generation of batters. India may have lost the World Cup final vs Australia’s golden generation, but sowed the seeds of future success.

The rivalry continues

Mohali 2011 is unarguably the highest stakes World Cup encounter between India and Pakistan, in a World Cup which ended with MS Dhoni lifting the trophy at the Wankhede. It was that man Sachin who once again delivered with a knock of 85 runs, aided by Pakistan’s butterfingers, which were guilty of dropping the Little Master four times. While 5 wickets by Wahab Riaz helped restrict the home team to a score of 260, Pakistan’s poor chasing record once again came to the fore, as they crumbled to 29 run defeat. The conversation which centered around ‘Pakistan lacking the nerves to beat India in a World Cup’ was front and center after this loss.

In both 2015 and 2019, the India Pakistan game resulted in one sided drubbings in favour of the men in blue, with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma stealing the show in Adelaide and Manchester, respectively. India were odds-on favourites on both occasions, and lived up to that tag by further establishing their dominance over Pakistan in World Cups. It is worth mentioning that in both games, the men in green were chasing.

For Saturday’s clash, India have 5/11 odds to come out on top, and apart from the fact that they are playing at home and can be considered the superior side pound for pound, they have the supposed edge over Pakistan when it comes to holding their nerves more effectively. There is no mathematical formula which can prove this theory, but the fact that Pakistan has lost 6 out of 7 World Cup games vs India batting second, makes you wonder if pressure is indeed a contributing factor. The unmatched weight of expectations that comes with this game for either side, given the political tensions and history between both nations, adds fuel to that conjecture.