Published: Mar 30, 2011, 10:35 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 18, 2014, 05:58 PM (IST)
By Jake Howe
The other day I heard that there was a cricket match of sizeable importance to be played in Mohali on Wednesday. Did you hear about it? Being English, I remain skeptical of the existence of this so-called “World Cup“. Nonetheless, there are few occasions, if any, in cricket with more riding on them than a winner-takes-all encounter between India and Pakistan. And if that means yet another multi-tabbed nerdification session, so be it. Here are the stats you need to know…
In terms of preparation, there isn’t much these sides could have done differently before the Cup.
India have been quietly tinkering with the line-up and amassing the best XI in the country for the best part of four years, and over the last two years have been rotating just about everyone in and out of the side. It’s hard to find an ODI from the last two years where all of India’s main performers have played.
In fact, before the World Cup, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan hadn’t played in the same match since Christchurch, March 8, 2009. Between then and their victory over Bangladesh in Dhaka on the February 19, India have played 58 ODIs.
Pakistan, meanwhile, have been forced to go through just about as little preparation as possible after numerous scandals, bannings, retirements, unretirements and teenagers. Over the same period – since March 2009 – Pakistan have had six captains, five of whom have been banned at some point, and four of whom are still playing.
Yet, by and large, Pakistan somehow have come out on top. Statistically, they’ve put in a much better performance this World Cup than their Indian counterparts.
At first, it looks very typical, with Pakistan’s bowling being on top – averaging an outstandingly low 20.61 to India’s mediocre 31.79. While India have muscled their way through with batting prowess – a batting average of 37.42 with four hundreds compared to the 30.48 without a hundred offered by Pakistan. It’s not hard to see why – trying to count the currently performing bowlers in the Indian line-up is as limited an exercise as trying to count the specialist batsmen holding their hands up for Pakistan.
However, things get a lot more interesting, and a lot worse for India, when only matches against the top eight sides are taken into account. In terms of batting, India’s loss of their huge batting display against Bangladesh – replaced with a greater focus on their good starts and horrible middle-order collapses in search of the massive totals – means that their batting average falls to 31.31. Conversely, Pakistan’s batting average not only isn’t hit by the loss of their results against associates but even rises slightly, past India’s, to 31.69.
Pakistan fans will be even more excited to what happens to the bowling averages. Counting only results against the fellow quarter-finalists – so Yuvraj Singh’s inexplicable displays of blitzfilth against Ireland and the Netherlands don’t count – India’s bowling average shoots up to 36.58, well behind Pakistan’s still-excellent 23.65. That’s a massive step in performance, and one India will do well to remember after their bowlers failed to defend 338 and 296 against England and South Africa.
India fans will, of course, cite possibly the most definitive stat of them all – their country’s 4-0 record in World Cups over their rivals. It gets better for them to remember the World T20 final win, and that neither of Pakistan’s only two wins from Champions Trophy meetings between the two were knock-out matches.
Long story short, if Pakistan wants to win this World Cup, they are going to have to do what they have never managed before in Mohali. But then, this tournament they have beaten Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies in the same tournament already – and they’ve never done that before either.
(This article is reproduced with permission from http://AlternativeCricket.com. AlternativeCricket is currently developing a scholarship for young Afghan cricketers. You can follow them on Facebook (http://facebook.com/alternativecricket ) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/altcricket )
