On this day in 2019: Rohit Sharma’s 140 demolishes Pakistan in World Cup
India have always had the upper hand over Pakistan as far as the ODI World Cup encounters are concerned. Ever since their first encounter at the quadrennial event, Pakistan have never been able to figure out a way to defeat the Men in Blue even on one occasion. Meanwhile, it was on this very day in 2019 that India beat Pakistan to take their head-to-head tally to 7-0 in the 50-overs World Cup encounters.
The arch-rivals locked horns in World Cup 2019 league stage match at the Old Trafford, Manchester. Moments before this mouth-watering clash, the then Pakistan Prime Minister had advised skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed to bat first after winning the toss. Surprisingly, he decided to field and the move backfired completely.
The duo of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul added 136 runs for the opening stand and it was Rohit who took the initiative of scoring at a brisk rate. The ‘Hitman’ scored an outstanding century and looked well set for a record fourth double-century before a scoop shot off Hasan Ali led to his downfall for a blistering 113-ball 140. Then skipper Virat Kohli also took the bowlers to the cleaners, but his knock ended at 77. Despite Mohammad Amir’s three-wicket haul, India posted a stiff 336/5 on the board.
Pakistan in reply lost Imam-ul-Haq early off Vijay Shankar. Babar Azam (48) and Fakhar Azam (62) then added 104 runs for the second wicket but the former was cleaned up by a dream delivery by wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, which eventually opened up the floodgates for India as Pakistan went on to lose a flurry of wickets.
The duo of Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim tried to delay the inevitable but the result was already a foregone conclusion by that point. In the end, the Men in Green were restricted to 212/6 from their quota of 40 overs in the rain-affected game as India came out on top with an emphatic 89-run victory via DLS method to continue their World Cup dominance. Rohit was adjudged the Player of the Match for his outstanding innings of a quickfire 140.
