It’s been 18 years since India defeated Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup. After winning the toss and batting first, Pakistan posted a total of 273 courtesy of a century by Saeed Anwar. 273 in 2003 was a good total considering T20 wasn’t yet introduced and scoring more than five runs per over was a challenging task. Also, the neighboring nation had some great bowlers in their ranks. Pakistan were confident going in to the innings break, but Sachin Tendulkar and company had other plans.
Sachin and Sehwag came on to open the innings for India and took the team off to a flying start. Sehwag got out early but the score was 53/1 in 5.4 overs when he went back in the pavilion. Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were steaming in just to be treated with some exquisite shots by the Master Blaster, Tendulkar.
Sachin’s six over the deep-backward point region was a shot for ages. He scored 98 runs, just two short of a brilliant century of 75 balls. The innings had 12 fours and one six. It was also the day when Sachin surpassed 12,000 runs in ODI cricket. Here are the highlights of that special innings:
You can see the figures of Pakistani bowlers in the first 10 overs here:
After Sachin got out, India’s innings was handled by the cameos of Kaif and Dravid, while Yuvraj Singh’s 50 took India home in an important World Cup match. Watch the full match summary here.