Its 4 in a Row for Pakistan over India !
By Farhad
November 22 2004
Farhad's article on Pakistan's recent dominance over arch rivals India. 4 one day international victories in a row have made Pakistani fans jubilant, whilst Indian fans have been down in the dumps.
The "bonus point" match..
Pakistan thrashed India by 59 runs in this Asia Cup pool match. Malik's 143 off 128 balls pulverised Indian bowlers as he laid into each one of them. Heralded his arrival as the new tormentor of India from our ranks. Malik anchored the innings and was the swashbuckling one too as nobody else on either side scored more than 35. Balaji was the one to suffer the most as he was slammed for 61 off just 7 overs. The poor petrified bowler soon went out of commission and till this very day has been on the sidelines.....another Indian hope that never delivered.
India in return, completely disintegrated half-way through their innings, throwing in the towel and accepting defeat only to shamelessly inch towards the losing team bonus point. That didn't come in handy either as that merely resulted in a massive caning of them by SL in the Final.
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The Holland howitzer match...Pathan crumbles big-time
Punished them mercilessly again by 66 runs in a curtailed encounter. Malik again their nemesis, making 68 at run-a-ball when the next highest score in the match was in the 30s. This is the match where Pathan was blasted away by Afridi, Razzak and Youhanna posting him for massive sixes. The one Afridi hit straight over the bowler's head, landed in the adjacent canal running outside the ground. Youhanna's classic hit sent the ball soaring over extra-cover fence and Razzak just sent it into the next orbit! Inexperienced Pathan looked edgy and shaken up in his second spell sending just the right signals for Pak batsmen to pounce on him. Conceded 40-odd runs in his last four overs!
India in its turn, got bamboozled by Afridi and Malik who tied their experienced batsmen in knots making them look novices, taking seven scalps between them. India losing by a big margin, and Pak fans flooded onto the ground to celebrate in style. Many PPers were there too. Indian players and fans shown on TV looking forlorn and very sad indeed!
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Much-awaited ICC needle match - Youhanna, Shoaib and Rana slay India.
This was a match held in the most festive of settings, with a massive international audience and saw Pakistan roll over India comprehensively. Rana and Shoaib never allowed Indian batting to settle or recover, and Pakistan in their innings kept on a good momentum, with Youhanna playing one of the more remarkable knocks of his ODI career. The fate was sealed when Afridi punished Pathan severely, smashing him for 22 runs off the 9 balls he faced off the Indian, precipitating the Pakistan victory. Deservingly though it was Youhanna who played the winning shot much to the jubilation of the players in the Balcony and the rejoicing fans at the ground.
Thus, again, it was the turn of Pak fans to celebrate who despite being out-numbered, made plenty of noise on their claxons and left it to the brilliant Pak players in the middle to silence and send to gloom the Indian contingent in the crowd and its hapless team players. Indian team on a low and demoralized by this major defeat at the hands of the arch-rivals, made their long journey back home utterly dazed. That match was followed by the Aussie's tour of India in which the already shell-shocked and stunned Indian team got pulverised.
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Icing on the cake...BCCI Platinum Jubilee match...Pak pummels India into submission at the latter's H/Q yet again.
This was the best of the best settings. With BCCI holding this special match to commemorate its 75 years of existence, Eid being celebrated in Pakistan and Diwali in India, hundreds of millions were glued to the TV praying for their team to win this memorable match. In the end, it was a damp squib for the Indians sadly who saw their hopes and prayers vanishing in thin air as Pakistan romped home clobbering a mediocre Indian bowling attack with consummate ease.
Afridi spinning India into trouble early on but the home team recovered to set up a target of 293. Pak's new prodigy Salman Butt showed remarkable maturity and temperament to subdue and dominate the opposition bowlers. Malik played another gem of an innings but the real fierce knock came from Inzamam who having been on 16* at one stage off 40-odd balls and looking out of sorts, cut loose in spectacular fashion to demolish Indian bowlers with utter contempt, finishing with a run-a-ball 75.
In a match Tendulkar would do well to forget, the tide turned decisively in Pak's favor when his shockingly-wayward single over went for 15 runs, including two thundering blows by Inzamam off half-trackers served by the Indian part-time spinner who once again had amply demonstrated his lack of stomach for a big occasion. Floodgates opened up and brutal power hitting in the end thus ensured another easy Pak victory by a convincing margin of 6 wickets. Such was the performance of Pakistan that two of its big hitters, Razzak and Afridi were not even needed to secure this crushing triumph.
As Inzamam lifted the glittering BCCI Platinum Jubilee Cup Trophy, a whole nation cheered whilst the other one sulked in its misery and envy on a day which from many angles was supposed to bring happiness and joy to all and sundry.
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So this is the stunning sequence of Pak beatings of India that has given so much joy to Pakistan fans but sent so many Indian fans reeling and looking utterly clueless about what has hit them!