Passionate fans from both sides of cricket’s fiercest rivalry on Sunday preached sporting peace after India’s Cricket World Cup thrashing of Pakistan in front of an estimated global TV audience of 1 billion people.
India extended their unbeaten World Cup run against Pakistan to seven matches with an 89-run victory in front of a vociferous, sellout Manchester crowd, largely down to Rohit Sharma’s superb 140 off 113 balls.
Pakistan, chasing 337 to win, were always behind the run rate and finished on a rain-interrupted 212-6, well short of their revised target of 302 in 40 overs.
Photo: Reuters
Despite the volatile political relations between the two nations, the majority of fans were determined that the sporting battle remained good-natured.
“India and Pakistan have long been rivals in the cricket field, but we have to move on from the hatred,” India fan Amit Jain said. “This is not war, so take it as a game. All those news channels that were trying to spread hate are looking for some other news now.”
“This is done and dusted for them. So we should realize this and grow up,” the 43-year-old London businessman added.
Most of the Pakistan supporters trudged away from Old Trafford early when rain interrupted with their team struggling at 166-6 after 35 overs. When the match resumed, Pakistan were left with a virtually impossible revised target of 136 more from five overs.
“India is a great team, no doubt about it and [India captain Virat] Kohli is a man who leads from the front,” dejected Pakistan fan Ashraf Ali said. “We knew we had little chance, but had to keep our morale up by saying that we are going to win. It was fun sitting alongside our Indian friends and watching a good game of cricket. That’s how it should be. Peace is what we need.”
In India and Pakistan it was approaching midnight by the time the game ended.
At a packed outdoor screen in Gurgaon outside New Delhi, hundreds of people were glued to the game before the rain started during Pakistan’s innings, many of them with Indian flags and painted faces.
“Today the josh [patriotic enthusiasm] is at the top of the level. I can’t express in words,” India supporter Satyam Mishra said in Gurgaon.
Some fans started to dance and celebrate as Pakistan’s batsmen began to falter and the match tilted in India’s favor.
“Thank God we are warring on the cricket field rather than warring between our borders,” 17-year-old student Avaneesh Damaraju said.
Fans in Islamabad braved the heat to watch the match on big screens in a public park, but they began to thin out rapidly as Pakistan’s loss became inevitable.
“My Pakistani patriot tweet for the day: It is just a game,” former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani tweeted.
Others were less sanguine.
“My thoughts and prayers goes out to the television sets across Pakistan,” tweeted one user along with a photograph of a man aiming an automatic weapon at a TV set airing the match.
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