The India v Pakistan rivalry is one we don’t see very often on the world stage. Sunday night’s T20 World Cup clash not only lived up to the deserved hype, but vastly exceeded expectation.
It was a match deserving of the build-up and hype, and there could hardly have been a better stage for it.
A sold-out MCG, in a T20 World Cup opener – it was rightly the focal point of the beginning of the tournament.
And the match sure did deliver.
A record 90,293 fans packed out the MCG, the most ever in a neutral cricket game in Australia, for what would be an incredible game of cricket.
Clawing back from an unfavourable position seemed to be the theme of the game, as Pakistan recovered from 2/15 after the first four overs of the match to post a reasonable score of 8/159.
Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed rescued the innings for Pakistan, both registering half-centures to steer their country to a respectable total.
Compared to India, however, that feat would be nothing.
India, reduced to 4/31 by the beginning of the sixth over, still seemed all but gone by the end of the 11th, when at 4/54 it still needed 106 runs from 54 balls.
Enter Virat Kohli, ably assisted by Hardik Pandya.
The ex-skipper and star all-rounder added 113 for the fifth wicket, dragging India to a still-unlikely equation of 16 runs from the final over.
And that last over was arguably the craziest part of the entire game:
An unfortunate result for Pakistan and Mohammad Nawaz, who bowled the last over, but a cherry on top of an incredible 40 overs of cricket.
Kohli finished with 82 from 53 balls, an incredible innings anchoring India’s chase, and one which he deems to be his best ever:
And he wasn’t the only one, receiving plenty of praise from some of the greats.
But more broadly, the game itself left fans spectators, pundits, and even the players in complete awe.
