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11th over: Pakistan 60-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 25, Babar Azam 14) Hardik Pandya continues. His bandana is handsome, but his bowling is not: Babar pulls him for four with a lordly roll of the wrists, then whips him for four more. Pakistan back in the driving seat.
“Fun, innit?” says Dean Kinsella. “Rohit definitely give Siraj a bit of stick a couple of times before the wicket. Unusual these days. Its all about cosseting and encouragement in pro sport now. So I call that top-class captaincy. He knew what Siraj needed.”
10th over: Pakistan 49-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 23, Babar Azam 5) Siraj, cheered by the wicket, finally bowls the over he should have begun with: line and length, five dots and a single.
“The Rishi Sunak Stadium,” says Simon McMahon, “is an improvement on what was there before, but the atmosphere is not the best, despite its size. Polite, and slightly reserved, but with an ever-present undercurrent of arrogance and intolerance. And the prices are extortionate.” I’m enjoying this seam of satire on a Saturday.
9th over: Pakistan 48-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 22, Babar Azam 5) So here is Babar, the most prized Pakistan wicket. He is greeted not by Bumrah but by Hardik Pandya, unexpectedly promoted from fourth seamer to third. Babar says thanks very much and helps himself to his first four, clipped off the toes.
The TV director is showing how Kane Williamson broke his thumb – he was taking a quick single and was hit by a throw as he arrived at the non-striker’s end. Unbelievably bad luck.
Wicket! Shafique LBW b Siraj 20 (Pakistan 41-1)8th over: Pakistan 41-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 20) Siraj continues to go for singles. Rohit, looking grumpy for once, has a word with him – and next ball they get the breakthrough! The ball is full, maybe keeping low, and Shafique simply misses his flick. He doesn’t bother reviewing, sensing that it was heading for leg stump. A relief for Siraj, and a triumph for Rohit.
India’s Mohammed Siraj celebrates the wicket of Pakistan opener Shafique. Photograph: Aijaz Rahi/APIn other news, Kane Williamson finds the cricket gods adding injury to injury.
Cruel blow for Kane Williamson, first full match back after tearing ACL in March and he breaks a thumb after being hit by a stray shy at the stumps. NZ keeping him in the official squad in the hope he can play the back end of group stage but Tom Blundell called up as a reserve
— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) October 14, 2023 7th over: Pakistan 37-0 (Abdullah Shafique 18, Imam-ul-Haq 18) For the first half-hour, Pakistan seemed to be quite happy just to see off Bumrah. Not any more: Shafique goes down the track, meets a back-of-a-length ball on the up, and lofts it over the bowler’s head for four. When Bumrah met chutzpah.
Imam joins in with a crisp leg glance for four, a good recovery after there ball thudded into his box. Nine from the over, and runs off Bumrah count double.
6th over: Pakistan 28-0 (Abdullah Shafique 13, Imam-ul-Haq 14) Rohit Sharma, Mr Unflappable, sticks with Siraj. He’s managed to stem the flow of fours, but he’s now getting milked for singles like a finger-spinner. Siraj has only nine dots from his first 18 balls; Bumrah has 16.
Pakistan batsmen Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq keep their eyes on the ball as the keep the scoreboard ticking over in the Cricket World Cup pool match against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Photograph: Vipin Pawar/Shutterstock5th over: Pakistan 23-0 (Abdullah Shafique 10, Imam-ul-Haq 13) Just when it feels as if Pakistan are on top, Bumrah keeps it so tight to Imam that he bowls a maiden. He’s the Indian Glenn McGrath – a strike bowler and a stock bowler, rolled into one.
“Good evening Tim,” says Philipp Lohan, making me wonder where he is. “Just back from a night out here in Montreal, Canada…” Aha. “…and in two minds whether sleep is more important that this game? Thoroughly enjoyed not hearing a single jeer or whistle while the Pakistan national anthem was played. Wonder whether the English fans in the Rishi Patel Stadium will display the same decorum!” Good to find that the British prime minister is so well known in Canada.
4th over: Pakistan 23-0 (Abdullah Shafique 10, Imam-ul-Haq 13) If this was a T20, Siraj would now be at fine leg. As it is he gets a chance to redeem himself. His first ball to a right-hander is too wide, so Shafique can just caress it to the cover boundary. After seven balls, Siraj has gone for 16 – but then he manages three dots and two singles, grabbing respectability from the jaws of embarrassment.
3rd over: Pakistan 17-0 (Abdullah Shafique 5, Imam-ul-Haq 12) Bumrah gets some shape away for the first time but Shafique is equal to it, keeping his hands soft to make sure the edge falls short of slip. Next ball he deflects past slip, so we finally get a single. Good stuff from Bumrah though: 2-0-5-0.
“It is difficult to keep politics out of sports,” says V Krishnamoorty, “more so when it is India-Pakistan. A Pakistan victory today will be poetic justice to the systemic state-sponsored Islamophobia prevalent in India.
“I am from India.”
2nd over: Pakistan 16-0 (Abdullah Shafique 4, Imam-ul-Haq 12) The other new-ball bowler is Mohammed Siraj, whose first over is rather different. The first ball is a freebie on the pads, glanced for four by a grateful Imam-ul-Haq. The second is straighter but too full, driven back past the bowler for four more. Siraj has left himself no leeway and suffers for it later in the over, getting tucked square for four more. Lovely timing from Imam, and no nerves. Pakistan are getting ’em in boundaries.
1st over: Pakistan 4-0 (Abdullah Shafique 4, Imam-ul-Haq 0) Bumrah, the human catapult, is spot on for the first five balls. Abdullah Shafique has to play at them all, and can’t get any of them away. Finally Bumrah strays onto the legs and Shafique flicks, fluently, for four. Honours even!
The players are out there, the hubbub is huge, and the ball is in the hands of Jasprit Bumrah.
“I’ve got goosebumps just sitting at home watching this one,” says Simon McMahon. “Imagine what it must feel like to be actually playing in it. I‘ve no idea to be honest, but I’d imagine it’s a mixture of nerves, excitement, focus, pride? Maybe a bit like doing the OBO for the biggest game of the World Cup so far…” Ha, lovely thought. Big as The Guardian is, somehow I’m not sure the hopes of a billion people are on my shoulders.
Pakistan fans in the house
India win the toss, which goes down well. I’ve seen two Pakistan fans, posing for photos and generally being treated like celebrities. One may actually be a celebrity – someone told me he was an influencer. If you hear a chant for Pakistan today he’s obviously a bloody good one
— Simon Burnton (@Simon_Burnton) October 14, 2023 The first email of the day is in, and it’s a spicy one. “Today,” says Niall Mullen, “England play Scotland at the Rishi Sunak Stadium. Of course there will be no Scottish fans present as they were not granted visas.”
Teams in fullPakistan 1 Abdullah Shafique, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Afridi, 11 Haris Rauf.
India 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravi Jadeja, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj.
Teams in brief: PakistanBabar Azam, who says he would have batted second too, names an unchanged side. The ring of confidence.
Teams in brief: IndiaIndia make one change, bringing back Shubman Gill in place of Ishan Kishan.
Toss: India win and bowl firstBabar Azam calls wrong, so Rohit Sharma wins the toss and he opts to chase. That’s what New Zealand did on this ground in the first match of the tournament, and it went pretty well.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma and Pakistan counterpart Babar Azam talk before the coin toss. Photograph: Aijaz Rahi/APPre-match readingWhy do India dominate Pakistan at the World Cup, but not in other tournaments? Mark Ramprakash has a theory.
The word on the street.
Roads closed. Traffic building up. The car park I walked past was almost full. Fans congregating at the gates. This is the Narendra Modi Stadium at 9am, five hours before India v Pakistan gets under way and an hour before gates open pic.twitter.com/VVPYSeQd33
— Simon Burnton (@Simon_Burnton) October 14, 2023 PreambleMorning everyone and welcome to the big one. India v Pakistan is basically the Manchester derby, if Manchester had a population of 1.6 billion.
The setting is Ahmedabad, which has what may well be the world’s second-biggest sports ground. The tickets are going for £250 and the boxes for £19,000, according to my colleague Anand Vasu. There are people wanting a room so badly that they’ve booked into hospital. There will be hardly any Pakistan supporters present because they haven’t been given visas, but hey, you can’t have everything.
Home advantage is on India’s side and so is the form book. These two teams have had seven meetings in ODI World Cups (from 1992 to 2019) and India have won the lot. Then again … Pakistan have a fine record against India in all ODIs, with 73 wins and only 56 defeats. And although the latest meeting, a month ago, was a walk in the park for India, both sides have begun this tournament in commanding fashion – played two, won two.
In any case the most important element today is not the result, this early in a rather rotund round-robin. It’s the margin of victory. We’re now 11 games into the World Cup and not one of them has been tight. The closest thing to a cliffhanger came when Pakistan played Sri Lanka, and they still cruised home by six wickets.
So any game will do as long as it gives us some drama. And if there’s one thing Pakistan can be relied upon to deliver…