Team India is playing against Pakistan in the 12th game of the ongoing edition of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. The game is being staged at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited Babar Azam and Co to open the face of the blade. Indian bowlers chipped in with disciplinary bowling performances and kept the Pakistani batters in check in the powerplay overs.
Although the openers played some shorts, the Indian bowlers made a quick recovery to get back on track. The openers namely Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq added a 41-run partnership before Mohammed Siraj bowled a sensational delivery to trap the right-handed batter for a leg before wicket.
A few overs later, Hardik Pandya provided a crucial breakthrough by getting rid of Imam-ul-Haq with a tricky delivery. Hardik pitched the ball a tad away from the left-hander. Meanwhile, Imam thought of driving the ball but ended up getting an edge as KL Rahul took a good catch in his safe pair of gloves behind the stumps.
Virat Kohli takes a swipe at Mohammad Rizwan for arriving late at the crease
Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan who came out to bat in the 13th over took some time to take guard at the crease. While Hardik Pandya was set to bowl the delivery with the Indian fielders ready, Rizwan was still taking time. Meanwhile, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was unhappy as he quickly went up to the on-field umpire to have a word with him for time wastage.
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Interestingly, former Indian skipper, Virat Kohli took a swipe at Mohammad Rizwan, by checking his fake watch repeatedly before Rizwan was eventually ready to face the ball. The video clip of the same went viral on social media. Shubman Gill who missed the first two games due to Dengue is eventually back in the mix against Pakistan. At the time of writing this article, Pakistan posted 123/2 in 24 overs, with Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan batting on 34 and 32 respectively.
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India’s Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan’s Playing XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
