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Sana Mir writes: Pakistan’s incredible win over India justifies favourites tag

Team MVR

It was incredible to see Pakistan beat India by ten wickets; I think every Pakistani has been waiting for this win for quite some time.

It is the first time Pakistan have beaten India at an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and they did it in quite grand style.

It was one of the most immaculate performances that I’ve seen from Pakistan’s men’s team, they were outstanding in all three departments; I don’t recall one mistake, they were quite brilliant.

Shaheen Shah Afridi set the tone with the ball with the two big wickets at the top and he was really well supported by all the bowlers and there was great energy in the field.

It felt like everyone knew exactly what their role was, there was a lot of clarity which I’m a big advocate of.

Mohammad Rizwan’s first six set the tone with the bat and I can say plenty about his partnership with Babar, but it won’t do justice to how well they batted.

Virat Kohli handled the defeat with so much grace and I admire his sportsman’s spirit, it’s really good to see the top athletes, who are role models, behaving in the way he did.

It shows a lot of security within, and it means they have a lot of confidence to bounce back so I won’t be surprised if India bounce back very quickly and in a big fashion and I hope we can see Pakistan and India play each other again in this tournament.

With this performance, Pakistan have definitely become one of the favourites for the tournament, but it was heartening to see Babar and Shaheen not get carried away when in front of the media, they were focused on the next games.

It is a great sign that they are staying level-headed and shows the team is going in the right direction.

Next up Pakistan play New Zealand and I think it’s going to be a very exciting game. Most of the time we have no history with New Zealand but after the series was cancelled last month, I think the boys will be extra motivated to perform well.

New Zealand have a very good side with a lot of skill and a great captain in Kane Williamson so it will be a very important match and the toss will also play a role with dew around in the late games.

After that it is Afghanistan and they will be another tough test, there is no team you can take lightly in T20 cricket.

The kind of power and clean hitting they possess plus their very good spin attack with Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Rashid Khan makes them very dangerous.

Courtesy: ICC Media Zone