South Australia felt more like South Asia on Sunday, as thousands of Indians and Pakistanis flocked to the state capital Adelaide for the rare chance to see their teams duke it out at the Cricket World Cup.
The majority wore the blue of India, and the majority left happy. Inspired by Virat Kohli’s return to form, India defeated its neighbor and great rival by 76 runs. There is already a trend at this World Cup:
The team batting first gets at least 300 runs, and the team chasing falls way short.
This highly anticipated contest was effectively over midway through Pakistan’s innings. In pursuit of India’s total of 300, Pakistan went from 98 for 2 to 103 for 5 before you could say “Hey, they were doing quite well literally five minutes ago.”
At the same stage in its innings, India was 129 for 1 and had the resurgent Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli at the crease.
Both had been in poor form ahead of the World Cup—Kohli didn’t even get to double figures in the recent tri-series with England and Australia—but they underscored their reputations as big-game players on Sunday in a match that by some estimates was watched by half a billion people world-wide. That is roughly the equivalent of the entire population of North America, from Panama to Alaska.
Kohli, in particular, has a knack for rising to the occasion. For an Indian cricketer, it doesn’t get any bigger than a World Cup match against Pakistan. He only got nine runs in their last World Cup meeting, in the 2011 semifinal, but this time he took advantage of a couple of drops by Yasir Shah (difficult) and Umar Akmal (routine) to go on and score 107.
No Indian, not even Sachin Tendulkar, had scored a century against Pakistan in the World Cup before. Kohli, who is only 26 years old, has 22 one-day international hundreds to his name. In addition to his innings—well complimented by Dhawan’s 73 and Suresh Raina ’s 74—Kohli also took a difficult catch to end Shahid Afridi ’s innings just as he and 40-year-old captain Misbah ul Haq were mounting a comeback.
The lower stand in the southeast of the stadium was filled with the green shirts and flags of Pakistani supporters, but its color drained as the final wickets fell. By the end, when Sohail Khan skied a catch to Umesh Yadav, the section was just empty plastic seats and Indian tricolors.
The Indian fans were in no mood to leave. They had transformed the Adelaide Oval into a home venue, an Australian Wankhede, and turned a Sunday evening in faraway Australia into a mela.
India Defeats Pakistan After Virat Kohli Century at Cricket World Cup - WSJ
