While Pakistan wilted under pressure, India did the opposite and that made the difference

Pressure. So much of sport is dominated by it. When you reach the highest level of any sport it is not about ability – every international athlete is phenomenally good at their chosen sport. It is about whether you can make that skill count when things are at their most intense. The history of Pakistan against India in global events is as much to do with how the two teams have handled the intensity of the match, as it is to do with the relative ability of the two teams.

On paper – something that is often spoken about but on which no game of cricket has ever been played – India are a better team. But man for man, the difference is not massive. While the gap between these teams may be larger now than at other points in cricketing history, you would expect that Pakistan, given their history, would win against India almost as often as they lose. Yet here we were, going into the tenth 50-over match between India and Pakistan at either the World Cup or Champions Trophy, and Pakistan had won just two of them. Even at the 1992 World Cup, a tournament that Pakistan would go on and win, they lost to India by 48 runs with the final eight wickets going down for just 68.

There is talk of the Ashes being the highest profile game in the cricketing world, but this simply isn’t true. India playing Pakistan is the pinnacle of the sport. Two cricket-mad nations that are starved of these matches because of political tensions come to a halt when these most fierce of rivals meet. Neutral matches at global events rarely fill press boxes or sell out grounds. Both of those things happened for the latest edition of India against Pakistan that took place at Edgbaston. The official attendance was 24,156, the most the ground has ever had for an ODI.

Elite sport is a cauldron where every single action is watched, analysed and watched again. Add in all of the above and you have a situation where it is a wonder that the players aren’t in the throes of a panic attack throughout the whole of every India versus Pakistan match.

And the reason for the lop-sided nature of these contests at World Cups and Champions Trophies is that India are so much better at staying calm. Going into this game the Pakistan team were interviewed for the TV coverage about their reputation for unpredictability. While the players tried to tell us that it was a positive, their coach, South African Micky Arthur, spoke of his frustration at the vast difference in performance levels. The occasion has gotten to Pakistan in the past, and as their fielding started off badly and got worse, it seemed that it had once again.

India batted with patience in the face of some decent bowling in the opening exchanges, happy to soak up pressure and backing themselves to score heavily in the later overs.

India scored at 4.6 an over in the first ten overs, just over five an over in the middle 30 overs and then blasted 13.25 runs an over at the death.   

It wasn’t the ultra-modern T20 style batting that England, South Africa and Australia have perfected, but it was very well executed.

While India were absorbing the best that their opponents had to throw at them, Pakistan were getting increasingly ragged in the latter stages of their fielding performance. Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir went off injured. Catches went down; Yuvraj Singh dropped on eight and Virat Kohli on 42, both men going on to make half-centuries. The regular rain interruptions could have impacted on the Indian batsmen’s thinking, but they didn’t let that happen. In the end Pakistan were set a Duckworth-Lewis-Stern adjusted target of 324, if those catches had been held, it might well have been under 300 that they were chasing.

A further rain delay left Pakistan with a target of 289 from 41 overs and when they got back underway, it was the Indians’ turn to struggle in the field. Bhuvneshwar Kumar put down Azhar Ali when he was on 37, Yuvraj failed to stop a ball that should have been a simple take from trickling onto the boundary rope, Kedar Jadhav dropped an absolute sitter off Shadab Khan. Pressure. It does funny things to you, even when you are on top.

Azhar made 50, but while his innings held things together, he needed someone to push hard at the other end. Instead he had Mohammad Hafeez struggling to get going. Their partnership was worth 30 from 51 balls and Azhar needed to do something as the required rate pushed toward 10 an over. A top edge off Ravindra Jadeja was caught on the boundary. Pressure was built, and pressure told.

Shoaib Malik came to the crease needing to get set and start hitting boundaries quickly. He couldn’t to do that and eventually set off for a single that was never there, taking on the best fielder in this Indian team. Jadeja picked up the ball, and without pausing for a moment, threw down the stumps. Under the most intense pressure, Jadeja executed one of the most difficult skills on a cricket field to run out Shoaib.

From there, any slim hopes that Pakistan had of winning this game disappeared. If these runs were going to be scored, it would have been by their top-order. When they failed it was just a matter of time before India won yet another ODI in a global tournament against Pakistan.

This is far from the best Pakistan team to ever play one-day cricket, but they certainly aren’t this bad. All that happened was they wilted when the scrutiny was at its most intense. India did the opposite.