On This Day In 2014: India Defeated Pakistan by 7 Wickets in T20 World Cup

Ten years ago on this day, two of the world’s biggest cricketing rivals – India and Pakistan— played against each other in the T20 World Cup. Matches between India and Pakistan are always highly awaited and fans witnessed another classic rivalry between the two Asian giants on March 21, 2014.

This was the third time that India played against Pakistan at the T20 World Cup.

The-then India skipper MS Dhoni had won the toss and chose to bowl first at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh.

Pakistan faced an early collapse as Kamran Akmal and Ahmed Shahzad were involved in a mix-up and due to this the wicketkeeper was dismissed for eight runs.

Ahmed Shehzad and Pakistan skipper Mohammed Hafeez helped the team bounce back and tried to stitch a partnership, which was short lived. Hafeez was the first to depart after Ravindra Jadeja picked up the wicket of the Pakistan captain.

Amit Mishra bowled a terrific delivery and MS Dhoni removed the bails and helped the team claim their second wicket by dismissing Shehzad.

It was Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik, who then helped Pakistan script a comeback. Amit Mishra again came to India’s rescue by picking up the wicket of Malik for 18 and the dismissal left Pakistan reeling at 97/4 in 15.2 overs.

The Men in Blue dominated the game for the longest time as their arch-rivals suffered a batting collapse and were struggling to score runs in Mirpur.

Shahid Afridi posed a great threat for the MS Dhoni-led side but Bhuvaneshwar Kumar dismissed him for eight.

Pakistan’s Sohaib Maqsood produced a gritty knock of 21 off 11 balls and helped his team post a respectable target of 130/7 in 20 overs.

While chasing a target of 131, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan built a partnership of 54 runs. Pakistan pacer Umar Gul broke the partnership by picking up the wicket of Dhawan for 30. Rohit departed next having scored 24 runs.

It was Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina who eventually guided India to a win. While Kohli came up with an unbeaten knock of 36 off 32 balls, Raina remained not out on 35 off 28 deliveries.

The MS Dhoni-led side scored the winning runs with nine balls to spare. Amit Mishra was adjudged Player of the Match for his impressive figures of 2/22 as India earned a resounding seven-wicket triumph.

India had qualified for the final of the 2014 T20 World Cup but lost to Sri Lanka by six wickets in the summit clash.