Pakistan could not stand in front of India. Babar Azam's team had some influence in the bowling in the rain washed match of the group stage. However, Pakistan were ignored by their neighbors in the rain-hit 'two-day' ODI in the Super Four. Either in bowloing bowling, either in batting batting - India thrashed Pakistan in all categories to a record 228-run victory.
India's previous biggest win against Pakistan by a run margin came in 2008. India defeated Pakistan by 140 runs in the tri-nation ODI tournament held in Dhaka. And the record of biggest win in India-Pakistan duel was held by Pakistan till now. Pakistan bowled out India by 180 runs in the 2017 Champions Trophy final. India broke both the records at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo today.
As the saying goes, you can predict how the day will go by looking at the morning. The India-Pakistan Super Four match is a reminder of this. After losing the toss and batting first, India's two openers Rohit Sharma (56) and Shubman Gill (58) played fearless cricket from the start. Pakistan's bowler trio Shaheen-Naseem-Haris were handled brilliantly by both of them and picked up fifty. After their return to dressing room, Kohli and Rahul came to the crease. However, he did not get a chance to bat for much time yesterday due to rain.
They used the opportunity today on Reserve Day. Kohli (122*) brought up his 77th career century in a flood of record books. Rahul (111*) returned to the ODI team after a long time. He also reached three figures with great glory. Their unbroken stand of 233* for the third wicket saw India put their joint-highest ODI score of 356 on the scoreboard against Pakistan.
Pakistan's batting lineup, currently the best ODI team, has collapsed like a house of cards in pursuit of a mountainous target. They lost wickets at regular intervals and were all out for 128 runs in 32 overs.
With this loss, Pakistan has dropped to third place in the Super Four points table. And in the first match of the Super Four, India has won the top spot by a big margin. Rohit Sharma's team will play their second Super Four match against Sri Lanka at the same ground.