Though Sunday’s cricket match of India-Pakistan brought disappointment for the Indian fans, the sportsmanship of the Indian team players was applauded across the world. Pakistan won the match by 10 wickets, easily managing to score the 152 runs needed to defeat its neighbour.
Captain Virat Kohli and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni were praised for their mingling with the winning team on the ground post the victory of Pakistan. He interacted with the two batsmen who led Pakistan to win the T20 World Cup Super 12 match after a very long drought. The 152-run partnership of Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam helped Pakistan win its first T20 match with such a huge margin.
Despite losing, Virat Kohli was seen smiling and talking to Rizwan and Babar soon after the game, hugging and congratulating them on the win. Dhoni also interacted with some Pakistani team players- Babar Azam, Imad Wasim and Shoaib Malik- post the match. Actions of the Team India mentor and Captain were warmly received by the social media as users melted seeing the pictures.
The adorable images of Kohli and the opening duo were shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) with the caption, “Spirit of Cricket! #WeHaveWeWill”.
Along with the happy fans, the captain of the Pakistan women’s cricket team, Bismah Maroof, also expressed her joy. She commented on the picture saying, “We want/need to see this more often”.
Indian fans too congratulated Pakistan for its performance on Sunday with the bowling and batting side playing brilliantly well. One fan commented, “Good played Pakistan love from India”.
The images of Dhoni having a conversation with the Pakistani team members were shared by several social media users. “The beautiful game, Dhoni passing on knowledge to Babar,” one user wrote.
This was the first match between India and Pakistan in a bilateral series, the last played in 2012. They last played against each other at the 2019 World Cup in Manchester. India had won by 89 runs then.
India and Pakistan had met earlier in 7 50-over World Cup matches- India winning all of them. The former had also lost 5 matches they played in T20 World Cups against India.
In the round-robin Super 12-stage post the match, Captain Babar said, “This is just the start, we have the confidence to build on it now.” He also spoke about the pressure that was on the team and how they dealt with it. “That will remain with us. The pressure on us wasn’t that much – we weren’t thinking of the record against India at all. We executed our plans well and the early wickets were very helpful,” he said.
Pakistan is scheduled to play against New Zealand on Tuesday in Sharjah for their next match of the series.
