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Ravichandran Ashwin takes a run on the ball of Mohammad Nawaz and the Indian team achieves a thrilling victory over Pakistan by 4 wickets. Virat Kohli, who was at the crease at that time along with Ashwin, proved to be the biggest hero of the Indian victory. He played an excellent inning of 82 runs on 53 balls. This incident is of the India-Pakistan match in the last T-20 World Cup held in 2022.
That match was decided on the last ball, but when both the teams will face each other again in the same tournament on June 9, it is possible that the result of the match will be decided even before the match. That means who will win or lose the match can be decided to a large extent at the time of the toss. Why would this happen, let’s understand further…
71% of the matches in the World Cup were won by the team batting second.
For the first time, a T-20 match was played between India and Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup. This match held in Durban was tied, but India won the match through bowl out. Including this, 7 matches were played between the two in the T-20 World Cup. In 2007, both the times the teams batting first won.
There was no match between the two in 2009 and 2010. India-Pakistan match has taken place in every World Cup since 2012. Only the team batting second all five times won. In 2021, Pakistan defeated India in the only World Cup match while batting second. That means the team batting second won 71% of the matches.
Both the teams have played a total of 12 T20s against each other. In these also, only the team batting second won 9 times, the team batting first won 3 matches. That means the concept of bowling first led to success in 75% of the matches.
Why is toss important in India-Pak match?
Reason-1: Chase easy in T-20
From 2021, 50% of the T20 matches of the top-10 teams were won by chasing teams. Teams batting first were successful only 43% of the time. The remaining matches were either inconclusive or tied. Generally, most of the games in T20 format are played at night, where batting becomes easier due to dew in the second innings. This is because due to dew, bowlers are not able to control the ball easily and batsmen start playing open shots on bad balls. However, the India-Pakistan match to be held on June 9 will be held in daytime.
Reason-2: Better to chase in high pressure game
In knockout and high pressure matches like India-Pakistan, the pressure is more on the team batting first. The team batting second has a target in front of them, due to which it is easier to build the innings. In a high pressure game, bowling first does not guarantee victory, but it does provide more opportunities to put pressure on the other team.
Reason-3: New York pitch difficult to bat first
The match between India and Pakistan will be held at Nassau County Stadium in New York. The stadium was built only for the T-20 World Cup. There was very little time to make it, so a drop-in pitch was ordered from Australia. The pitch started being heavily criticized after the initial matches. Uneven bounce, too much swing and a poor outfield were seen here. ICC also said on the behavior of the pitch that they are trying to improve it.
However, in the matches played so far, batting later has been beneficial here too. Because in America, since the matches start in the morning, there is moisture on the pitch, which helps the bowlers. As the sun rises, the pitch is becoming more conducive for batting than it was in the first innings. For this reason, here too it is beneficial to bat later. So far 3 matches have been played in New York, the chasing team won twice and the team batting first won once. In the first two matches the score remained under 100 runs, while in the third match Canada scored 137 runs and restricted Ireland to 125 runs.
Let us know what was the trend of India-Pak matches held so far in T20 World Cup…
In 2007, both the matches were won by the team batting first.
In 2007, India and Pakistan were in the same group, facing each other on 14 September. Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl, India scored 141 runs at the loss of 9 wickets. Pakistan could also score only 141 runs in the second innings and the match was tied. However, India won the match in a bowl out under the then tie-breaker rules.
In 2007, India and Pakistan again faced each other in the final. This time India won the toss and chose to bat and scored 157 runs for 5 wickets. Pakistan team came close to the score, but was all out for 152 runs in 19.3 overs. That means, in both the initial matches, the team batting first got success.
Only the team that chased from 2012 to 2022 won
In 2012, Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat at Colombo ground, but the team was all out after scoring 128 runs in 19.4 overs. With the help of Virat Kohli’s fifty, India achieved the target by losing 2 wickets in 17 overs.
In 2014, India won the toss and chose to bowl at Mirpur ground. Pakistan could score only 130 runs for 7 wickets. India easily achieved the target at the loss of 3 wickets in 18.3 overs.
In 2016, India won the toss and chose bowling at Kolkata ground. Due to rain, the match was played in 18 overs each, Pakistan scored 118 runs for 5 wickets. India won the match by losing 4 wickets in 15.5 overs.
In 2021, Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl at the Dubai ground. India could score only 151 runs after losing 7 wickets. Pakistan achieved the target in 17.5 overs without loss. Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam made a record partnership of 152 runs.
In 2022, India won the toss and chose to bowl at Melbourne ground. Pakistan scored 159 runs for 8 wickets. India lost 4 wickets for 31 runs, from here Hardik Pandya and Virat Kohli took over the innings. Kohli scored 82 runs and helped India win by 4 wickets in the match which lasted till the last ball.
159 runs highest score of first innings
In the 7 World Cup matches held so far, 159 runs was the highest score in the first innings, which Pakistan made on the ground of Melbourne in 2022. However, India chased it. 118 runs between the two was the smallest score made by Pakistan in 2016. However, this match was made of 18-18 overs due to rain.
The lowest score in the first innings in a 20 over game was 128, this was also made by Pakistan in 2012. That is, till now only low scoring matches have taken place between the two in the World Cup, in which the score could reach only 118 to 159 runs.
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Graphics: Kunal Sharma
Sketch: Sandeep Pal
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Part-6: American League will compete with IPL on the pretext of ICC tournament: Shahrukh-Nadella’s teams in MLC; Pakistan also failed in running PSL
Part-5: T20 World Cup in ‘betting bastion’: Americans do sports betting worth Rs 10 lakh crore annually, now cricket is entering there
Part-4: T-20 World Cup after IPL, a threat to India: Played 3 tournaments till now, out of group stage all three times
Part-3: Why is T20 World Cup being held in America: Cricket will become popular in the richest country of the world, ICC will also benefit.
Part-2: Cricket’s first modular stadium where India-Pak match will be held: Pitch built in Australia, Formula 1 stand installed
Part-1: First time in T20 World Cup: Tournament in America, 8 matches in temporary stadium, 6 new things related to the tournament
