Pak Schooled As India Make  Mockery of The Hype

It was nothing short of a vociferous cauldron.  A gigantic ensemble of blue jerseys, a deafening rhythm of supporting chants, comparable to the Roman Colosseum cheering on their favourite gladiators. The Hype created had paid rich dividends, just that the challengers as fearful as they could be,  did not show up. The sea of blue rejoiced till late in the night and celebrated a great victory.

Pakistan, invited to bat began well, playing some attractive shots with the scoreboard gaining speed. However, the Indian bowlers getting a hang of the pitch shortened their lengths, started bowling cross seam and were eventually rewarded. Babar Azam and Rizwan then got together to stitch an 83-run partnership, which was more sedate than attacking. They were not running away with the game and the moment Babar was castled by Siraj, all hell broke loose. 

Jasprit Bumrah, the best bowler on show this World Cup so far, produced two great deliveries, one a slow off-cutter to knock over Rizwan and the other a reverse swinging peach to get rid of Shadab Khan. On the other end,  Kuldeep was busy cleaning up the rest. An extremely tentative batting approach and some callous batting by the tail saw Pakistan lose 8 wickets for 36 runs and folded for a meagre 191 with plenty of overs to spare. India’s bowling was both inventive, incisive and extremely purposeful. 

With Rohit, in the mood he his, the chase was a walk in the park, made ridiculously easy by Rohit’s power, finesse and abundance of class. The Pak Bowlers though got a few wickets, they appeared completely off-colour and did not pose any threat at all. In the end, India won by plenty to spare. The massive victory has propelled India to the top of the table with a mighty net run rate.