Pakistan-India Cricket Rivalry

 In A Nutshell

The India–Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world. An India-Pakistan cricket match has been estimated to attract up to three hundred million television viewers according to TV ratings firm initiative, and defeat is usually unacceptable to fans of both teams.

The arch rival realation betweem  the two states, resulting from the extensive communal violence and conflict that marked the partition of India in 1947 and the independence of Pakistan, laid the foundations for the emergence of an intense sporting rivalry between the two nations who had erstwhile shared a common cricketing heritage. The first Test series took place in 1951-52, when Pakistan toured India. India toured Pakistan for the first time in 1954-55. Between 1962–77, no cricket was played between the two countries owing totwo major wars in 1965 and 1977. The 1999 Kargil Dispute and 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack have led to as yet shorter breaks in cricketing ties.

The growth of large expatriate populations from India and Pakistan across the world led to neutral states like the United Arab Emirates and Canada hosting several bilateral and multi-lateral ODI series involving the two teams. Players in both teams routinely face intense pressure to win.Extreme fan reactions to defeats in key matches such as in the ICC Cricket World Cup have been recorded, with a limited degree of violence and public disturbances. At the same time, India-Pakistan cricket matches have also offered opportunities for cricket diplomacy as a means to improve relations between the two countries by allowing heads of state to exchange visits and cricket followers from either country to travel to the other to watch the matches. The cricketing rivalry, after suspension of bilateral cricketing ties some five years back, is again to commence in December 2012 with the BCCI hosting three ODIs in India.Pakistan wants BCCI agree to sharing of revenue generated from the matches. The stand of BCCI on revenue sharing is not clear yet. Pakistan Cricket Team's ex-captain, Moin Khan, said that cricket has always reduced the bilateral tensions between the two countries.

Matches

The first ever test match between India and Pakistan was played at Delhi from 16–19 October 1952. It was a four day test, India required just three days to beat Pakistan by an inning and 70 runs. India won the 5-match series 2–1 and then, the following 10 tests were draws. Pakistan's first series win against India came after 26 years, in the 1978–79 series.

In the late 1980s & 90s, the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams played each other in non-Test-playing nations venues such as Canada (Toronto) and the United Arab Emirates (Sharjah). The series between the teams in Canada in the 1990s and early 2000s were officially known as the "Friendship Cup".

Pakistan leads India in the number of wins in Tests (12–9) and One Day Internationals (69–47). Although India has won on every occasion the two teams have met in a world cup and has unbeaten record against Pakistan in the T20 world cup Internationals (1–0) and in cricket world Cup matches (5–0). Pakistan has an unbeaten record against India in Champions Trophy matches (2-0). Furthermore Pakistan has an unbeaten record against India in Asian test championship matches (1-0).

In early 2009, India was scheduled to begin a tour of Pakistan from 13 January to 19 February 2009, but was cancelled because of the tension existing between the two countries after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, in November 2008.

The cricketing ice finally broke down in July 2012 when BCCI invited the Pakistan national team to tour India for 3 ODIs and 2 T20s in December 2012. The three ODIs will be held in New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai with Ahmedabad and Bangalore getting to host the two Twenty20 fixtures.

Cricketing History

Overall

	Tests	ODIs[	T20Is[
Matches played	59	121	2
Won by India	9	48	1
Won by Pakistan	12	69	0
Draw/Tie/No result	38	4	1

Tournaments

Main Championship Titles	India	Pakistan
World Cup	2	1
ICC Champions Trophy	1*	0
ICC World Twenty20	1	1
Asia Cup†	5	2

ODI Series

Series	Years	Host	First match	ODIs	IND	PAK	Tie/No Result	Winner
1	1978–79	Pakistan	1 October 1978	3	1	2	0	Pakistan
2	1982–83	Pakistan	3 December 1982	4	1	3	0	Pakistan
3	1983–84	India	10 September 1983	2	2	0	0	India
4	1984–85	Pakistan	12 October 1984	2	0	1	1	Pakistan
5	1986–87	India	27 January 1987	6	1	5	0	Pakistan
6	1989–90	Pakistan	16 December 1989	3	0	2	1	Pakistan
7	1996	Canada	16 September 1996	5	2	3	0	Pakistan
8	1997	Canada	13 September 1997	5	4	1	0	India
9	1997–98	Pakistan	28 September 1997	3	1	2	0	Pakistan
10	1998	Canada	12 September 1998	5	1	4	0	Pakistan
11	2003–04	Pakistan	13 March 2004	5	3	2	0	India
12	2004–05	India	13 November 2004	1	0	1	0	Pakistan
13	2004–05	India	2 April 2005	6	2	4	0	Pakistan
14	2005–06	Pakistan	6 February 2006	5	4	1	0	India
15	2005–06	UAE	18 April 2006	2	1	1	0	Drawn
16	2007–08	India	5 November 2007	5	3	2	0	India
17	2012–13	India	December 2012	3	-	-	-	-
Total		India: 6 Pakistan: 7 Canada: 3 UAE: 1		65	26	34	2	India: 5 Pakistan: 10 Draw: 1

TEST Series

Series	Years	Host	First match	Tests	IND	PAK	Drawn/No Result	Winner
1	1952–53	India	16 October 1952	5	2	1	2	India
2	1954–55	Pakistan	1 January 1955	5	0	0	5	Drawn
3	1960–61	India	2 December 1960	5	0	0	5	Drawn
4	1978–79	Pakistan	16 October 1978	3	0	2	1	Pakistan
5	1979–80	India	21 November 1979	6	2	0	4	India
6	1982–83	Pakistan	10 December 1982	6	0	3	3	Pakistan
7	1983–84	India	14 September 1983	3	0	0	3	Drawn
8	1984–85	Pakistan	17 October 1984	2	0	0	2	Drawn
9	1986–87	India	3 February 1987	5	0	1	4	Pakistan
10	1989–90	Pakistan	15 November 1989	4	0	0	4	Drawn
11	1998–99	India	28 January 1999	2	1	1	0	Drawn
12	2003–04	Pakistan	28 March 2004	3	2	1	0	India
13	2004–05	India	8 March 2005	3	1	1	1	Draw
14	2005–06	Pakistan	13 January 2006	3	0	1	2	Pakistan
15	2007–08	India	22 November 2007	3	1	0	2	India
Total		India: 8 Pakistan: 7		58	9	11	38	India: 4 Pakistan: 4 Draw: 7

Sri Lanka Vs West Indies WT20 2012 Super8 Match Review

Sri Lanka Hammers West Indies In Super 8's

A delightfully unorthodox Sri Lankan attack working at close to its best handcuffed a power-packed West Indies line-up, conceding just 129 runs even though they took only five wickets in the 20 overs. The Sri Lankan top three made light work of the target, the lowest-ever challenge in Pallekele, taking a big step towards the semi-final courtesy of a hefty net run-rate bonus from the win with 28 balls to spare.

Between Ajantha Mendis' different bamboozlements, Nuwan Kulasekara's mix of inswingers and huge slower balls and Jeevan Mendis' skiddy legrollers, Lasith Malinga could afford to have an off half-day, even though he too came back with two superb overs in the end to stifle any ambitions West Indies might have had after the innings was rebuilt by half-centurion Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo, who scored 40 off 34 balls.

Kulasekara got big man Chris Gayle out with a slower delivery about 25kmph slower than his usual delivery. Ajantha began with a wicket-maiden, toying around with Johnson Charles, and ended with one run and Kieron Pollard's wicket in the 16th over. Jeevan played his part in slowing down and eventually getting rid of Bravo, who looked threatening. Jeevan even managed to slip in a jig to match Gayle's wicket celebrations.

Sri Lanka were on for this game from the moment Tillakaratne Dilshan dived at short point to keep the first ball of the match down to a dot; their fielding hardly ever let up throughout the rest of the innings, except for a half-chance missed by Kumar Sangakkara. There was tension and anticipation around with the way West Indies had played out four quiet overs without the loss of a wicket. Usually one of two things happen at such tmes: either Gayle launches or his team slips after his wicket.

Mahela Jayawardene wanted the wickets. He brought on Ajantha well in earnestness. Charles had no clue which way Mendis turned it, and he finally jumped out of the crease more in hope than anything. He was beaten by the googly, and stumped easily. Mendis conceded only leg-byes in that over: take out his middle match and his figures in the tournament now read 5-3-8-7. In the next over Kulasekara produced the massive slower ball. Gayle waited and waited, but all he could manage was an edge, which Sangakkara accepted with a forward dive. With Gayle's first failure of the tournament, the celebrations suggested the match had been won.

Bravo and Marlon Samuels, though, were not to oblige that soon. Samuels, with his deft touches, and Bravo, with his power, rebuilt the innings with a partnership of 65 in 9.2 overs. The strike-rate may not have been great, but the approach made for good viewing. Bravo's extra-cover drives matched Samuels' late-cuts for aesthetics. They preferred the pace that Angelo Mathews and Malinga provided, but Jeevan put the brakes on, conceding just two in his first over, and getting Bravo to pull to long-on in the second.

Mendis came back to finish off Pollard, but Andre Russell, the new man in, broke the maiden. He and Samuels took 21 off Kulasekara's comeback over, but Malinga pulled them back with a mix of yorkers and slower balls in the 19th. An underwhelming 10 runs came in the last two overs, and Sri Lanka took all the momentum into the chase.

Dilshan got the chase off to a start similar to the one he had provided in the field. The first three balls he faced he smacked for fours. Fidel Edwards was the culprit providing him width. Replacing Samuel Badree who went for 20 in his quota in the last match, Edwards had gone for 12 off the first three balls. Ravi Rampaul followed it up with a superb over, removing Dilshan, but Jayawardene and Sangakkara were too good against an attack comprising three specialist bowlers and defending just 129.

The two showed respect to Sunil Narine, if only because they could afford to, taking just 23 off his four overs, but others weren't accorded such nicety. Sangakkara reached 1000 international runs along the way, and Jayawardene a seventh fifty. Once Narine was done, they launched an attack in a bid to increase the net run-rate. They did so without playing funky Twenty20 shots. The last 43 runs came off just 20 balls, and ticket to Colombo was all but booked.

Match Result

Sri Lanka won the match by 9 wickets with 28 balls remaining.

Man Of The Match

Man of the match is was given to Mahela Jayawardene for his brilliant knock of 65 off 49 balls.