Memorable Asia cup encounters. Asia cup 2012, India vs Pakistan.
A virtual knockout, a mammoth 330-run target, and a ferocious bowling attack in front to defy all odds, India needed the evens to be Stevens. The stage was set at Mirpur Cricket Ground in Bangladesh, the host of the 2012 ODI Asia Cup. It was a four-team series with India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as the participants. The Indian team was coming off a very lethargic performance just two days ago. Depleted after losing to Bangladesh, and this time in a do-or-die game, it wasn’t just any other opponent in front. It was their old arch-rivals, the men in green, Pakistan.
Arch-Rivals put on a mammoth 330 runs on the board.
Misbah ul Haq had won the toss and elected to bat first, and the dangerous opening duo of Nasir Jamshed and Mohammad Hafeez put on a brilliant 224-run partnership inside 36 overs to put Pakistan on the driver’s seat. Both the opening partners reached their respective centuries. India then came back into the game, picking up nine wickets in the next 14 overs to restrict Pakistan to 329. Back in the day, India had the luxury of utilising eight different bowlers, and MSD was a craftsman at work in such a situation, with Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sachin Tendulkar, and even Rohit Sharma rolling his arm over. Chasing 330 in a high-pressure encounter, India lost the man of the clutch situation in the second ball of the innings when Gambhir was trapped in front of the wickets by Hafeez for a duck. Tendulkar had just gotten the monkey off his back, scoring his 100th international century in just the previous encounter, and was looking ultra-aggressive, unlike his previous innings. He was joined by the upcoming mega-star, the man who helped India chase 317 runs in just 37 overs three weeks ago at Hobart against a vicious bowling lineup of Sri Lankans, Virat Prem Kohli.
The past, the present and the Future of Indian Cricket!
India’s batting pillar for the past 10 years and India’s future pillar for the next 10 years were batting together, and it was just like a transition happening live! Tendulkar was the aggressor initially, while Kohli took his time. The duo targeted Aizaz Cheema while giving due respect to the then magician, Saeed Ajmal, and fiery Umar Gul. At the 10th over mark, India was 58-1 about neck and neck with the asking rate. If Tendulkar was driving straight past the bowler, Kohli was flicking off his legs. If Tendulkar was playing the good old cover drive, Kohli wasn’t behind either, oozing into the new-gen cover drive. A masterclass of batting was on the cards, and spectators were onto a run-chasing feast. The master and the student had quickly identified Pakistan’s weaklings, and Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, and Aizaz Cheema had no place to run apart from running to the boundary ropes to throw the ball back into play to the obnoxious strokes of Sachin and Kohli. While Kohli brought up his fifty in just 52 deliveries, Tendulkar out batted him to reach the milestone in just 45 deliveries. Scoring at 6.89 runs per over till the 19th, India was just above the asking rate when Ajmal outfoxed Sachin with a googly, which he failed to read and was caught at slip by Younis Khan, and a brilliant 133-run partnership came to an end. This also went on record as one of the greats of Indian cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar’s last ODI innings, as he bid adieu to ODI cricket.
Those were the days when the current Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma, used to bat in the middle order. The two youngsters, Sharma and Kohli, were in a different mood altogether. As the old saying goes, the duo punished every single delivery that was asking to be hit and respected the good ones.
11th ODI Century! - Kohli Ends the Century drought against Pakistan.
In a matter of a few overs, as easy as it comes, Kohli brought up his 11th ODI century and first against Pakistan in just 97 deliveries. Notably, Kohli had quiet numbers of 16, 18, and 9 against Pakistan in the previous three ODI encounters till then. This was the first of many to come against Pakistan, and what a moment it was, in a virtual knockout against a pro-pakistan crowd at Mirpur, with India down and out completely in the previous game. Kohli was very well supported by Rohit Sharma with his brilliant stroke-making against the spinners. While Sharma kept the boundaries coming, Kohli focused on his bread and butter, the ones and the twos. This was an early sign of how big Kohli and Sharma would go on to become. After the hundred, Kohli just let loose; he took on everyone, be it Wahab Riaz, Cheema, Saeed Ajmal, or Umar Gul. And the 42nd over just put a full stop to any doubts on whether Kohli would dominate the next 10 years or so. A young Wahab Riaz, bowling at 145+ KmPH, was taken to the cleaners when he hit three consecutive fours. Riaz, who was trying to smear the reversing swinging yorkers, was shown the square leg boundaries on back-to-back deliveries. He then tried to take it away from Kohli, who was bowling a wide outside off yorker and Kohli took the ball away from the fielders at covers to make it three in three.
Pakistan didn’t have any answers – A master chaser arrives!
The youngsters were chasing it easy for India, and that’s when Pakistan finally broke the 172-run stand for the fourth wicket with Rohit’s dismissal for a well-compiled 68 runs. Soon after, the whirlwind innings of 183 runs by Kohli, which still remains his highest ODI score, came to an end by Gul, but not before he had sealed the game for India with just 12 required of 18 for Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to finish it off. A batting masterclass topped up with a chasing maestro showing glimpses of what’s to come for India. India won the match comfortably with 13 balls and six wickets to spare. Kohli touched the magical figure of 183, which Saurav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and now Virat Kohli all had in common, and there were no prizes for guessing who was the next Indian skipper after the Dhoni Era. As the then Pakistan skipper, Misbah, called out in the post-match conference, ‘Pakistan’ didn’t have any answers to this onslaught!
Though India did not end up in the finals as Sri Lanka lost to Bangladesh, it was this match in which India’s two future superstars came to their real dominance, and as they say, the rest is history.