New Delhi: India and Pakistan will lock horns and kick start their respective World Cup campaigns on Sunday, February 15, 2015. India versus Pakistan is not, and never has been an ordinary cricket match. It is much more than that; it becomes a matter of life and death (metaphorically), a matter of pride for a lot of us.
All the previous five battles of the two rivals have been nail biting and this time also it is expected to be the same as soon as MS Dhoni and Misbah-ul-Haq will step into the ground for toss.
The match at Adelaide is expected to be the most-watched match in the history of cricket. More than a billion stakeholders are involved in the battle between the two rivals. The high voltage atmosphere of an India-Pakistan clash can either spur cricketers on, or make them nervous.
In the 126 ODIs played between these two teams, Pakistan holds an upper hand with 72 victories while India has won only 50 matches. However, Pakistan has never managed to beat India in a World Cup face-off. Barring 2011, Pakistan has gone into every World Cup match against India as favorites.
Sachin Tendulkar has been a part of all the five World Cup matches played between India and Pakistan, winning the Man of the Match award on three occasions. However, he has never been able to hit a century against Pakistan.
While Venkatesh Prasad is the only Indian bowler to have taken a five-wicket haul in the much anticipated encounter.
Every victory against Pakistan is special more so if it is a World Cup victory. India TV looks at such match-winning performances by the Indian players who etched their names in the 23 years Indo-Pak World Cup history:
1) Sachin Tendulkar
The master blaster popularly known as God of Cricket played his first World Cup in 1992 at the age of 18. He has been a part of all the five World Cup matches played between India and Pakistan and won the Man of the Match award on three occasions (1992, 2003 and 2011) making him one of the best Indian player against Pakistan.
It was a group match in 1992 World Cup where a young Sachin Tendulkar starred with a man of the match performance with both bat and ball; he scored an unbeaten 54 of 62 and conceded only 37 runs for one wicket in his 10 overs. After a slow start India were left struggling at 148/5 till the time Sachin was joined by Kapil Dev on the crease and the duo shared 60 runs together to take India to a respectable total of 216. While Pakistan chasing, Sachin dismissed the in-form Aamer Sohail giving India the major breakthrough of the match. Pakistan were bowled out for a mere 173 thus losing by 43 runs.
He didn't had the good run in the quarterfinal of 1996 WC against Pakistan but in 1999 his fair contribution of 45 runs certainly helped India to post 227 on board. Later bowlers did their job and bowled Pakistan out for 180.
In 2003 it was the encounter between the world's most dangerous bowling attack and the Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Batting first Pakistan set a target of 274 for India. He started off the chase aggressively and brings up team's 100 in 12.1 overs. He had a half century stand with Sehwag and later 102 with Mohammad Kaif and went on to score 98 off 75 deliveries, well enough to beat Pakistan and advance to Super Six stage. Moreover who can forget that upper cut to third man for SIX against Shoaib Akhtar's bouncer.
In 2011 the story didn't changed as well. This time it was the mouth-watering clash in the semifinal at Mohali for a place in the final with Sri Lanka. Sachin Tendulkar starred with the bat yet again but fallen 15 runs short of his century. Pakistani fielders, it seemed, had made it their duty to not to catch any of Tendulkar's shots. He was dropped by Misbah-ul-Haq on 27, Younus Khan on 45, Kamran Akmal on 70, and Muhammad Hafeez on 81. It was finally Shahid Afridi who caught it.
Contributions lower down the order from Suresh Raina and company, India reached 260. He shared 48 runs with Sehwag and 68 with Gambhir in his course of 85 runs. All the bowlers later were above par. They bowled out Paksitan for 231 and India were through to the finals.
