IND VS PAK - 16th Match, Super 12 Group 2, ICC Mens T20 World Cup 2021

Diamonds are forever, but monkeys are not. This one was conceived on March 4th, 1992, has been appended to Pakistan's spine ever since, and met a rather ugly end today a few months short of its 30th birthday. India, despite all the exposure during the IPL, have lacked experience playing as a unit in the recent past which resulted in a scratchy show on the big stage, very early in the tournament. As for Pakistan, they're going to celebrate long into the night. It's been a sapping day, and perhaps they can afford to spoil themselves: a pizza, a burger, and some caffeine to stay up - maybe a mocha, and another mocha. We're calling it a night here at Cricbuzz - it's been Rishi Roy, alongside Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Ramakrishnan MS, Vineet Anantharaman and Siva bringing you the coverage. Here's to a less lopsided contest in future. Cheerio!

Babar Azam | Pakistan (winning) captain: This was the team's effort, and the early wickets were very helpful. It gave us a lot of confidence and our spinners were very good as well. We applied our plans and got the results. We, the openers, kept it simple and built a partnership and because the wicket was getting better so we just wanted to keep batting till the end, which we did. It won't get easier just because we beat India. We will take the confidence, but we're taking it one match at a time, and there's a long way to go in the tournament. We prepared well, and just kept the history out of our mind. We needed quality practice, and warm-up matches, and even our domestic tournament and those games gave us a lot of confidence.

Virat Kohli | India (losing) captain: We didn't execute properly. Credit where it's due and Pakistan outplayed us today. They started brilliantly with the ball, and 3 wickets for 20 runs was not a good start. We needed wickets early but with the bat they gave us absolutely no chances. It played slow in the first half and hitting through the line was not that easy as it was in the second half, after 10 overs. We needed those 15-20 extra runs and for that we needed a good start but Pakistan's bowling didn't allow us to get those extra runs. We could make the argument of getting in another slower bowler, but it's important to stay composed and understand our strengths, because with the dew the slower bowlers couldn't be effective either. This is just the first game of the tournament, not the last.

Shaheen Afridi, Man of the Match: It is the good wishes of my parents and all Pakistanis. Very happy with my performance. The plan was to bring the ball back in. I was just trying to swing it and I was just looking to give the team a breakthrough. That was what I practiced in the nets as well yesterday. Batting against the new ball was tough. The credit goes to Babar and Rizwan for the way they played. All teams are good in the tournament and we will look to carry this momentum through and go to the finals.

21:30 Local Time, 17:30 GMT, 23:00 IST: MS Dhoni, who's currently shaking hands with the Pakistan players, once eluded all manner of pessimism and said in a post-match press conference, that if not today, Pakistan will one day win a World Cup match against India. The day has arrived, and how. Right from the get-go, India's defence of 152 looked awry, when Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded a four and a six off the 2nd and 3rd balls. The spinners lacked penetration and panicked with their trajectories; and the fast bowlers simply couldn't buy a wicket despite a slew of good yorkers but were simply unable to build the pressure, and were perhaps unnerved by the historically uncharacteristic calmness exuded by the only two batters Pakistan needed to take their side home convincingly with 13 balls to spare. We'll be back for the presentations in a moment.

Stat: Highest partnership for Pak against India for any wicket in T20Is. Previous: 106 by Hafeez & Malik, 4th wkt, Ahmedabad, 2012

Ten wicket wins in T20 World Cups (target)
Aus v SL Cape Town 2007 (102)
SA v Zim Hambantota 2012 (94)
Oman v PNG Al Amerat 2021 (130)
Pak v Ind Dubai 2021 (152)

Ten wicket wins in T20 World Cups (target)
Aus v SL Cape Town 2007 (102)
SA v Zim Hambantota 2012 (94)
Oman v PNG Al Amerat 2021 (130)
Pak v Ind Dubai 2021 (152)

Yesterday England beat West Indies for the first time in T20 World Cups in six attempts. Today Pakistan beat India for the first time in T20 World Cups in six attempts

Rizwan removes his gloves and helmet to celebrate after completing the second run. At the striker's end Babar roars with a double first pump. And then in a minute their team mates mob them. Babar gets them in a huddle and it is one very happy bunch out there. Mood very silent in the Indian camp. You see MS Dhoni out in the middle. Shoaib Malik has a chat with him.

Shami to Babar Azam, 2 runs, and the monkey falls off Pakistan's back into the valley of death. Pakistan crush India by 10 wickets, and this is the most clinical way to bring up their first win against India across T20 and fifty-over World Cups. The ball: another attempted yorker, that's squeezed out towards long-on for a couple to bring up a win that has eluded them since the inception of the World Cup!

Shami to Rizwan, 1 run, very full, nearly into the blockhole, and that's squeezed out towards long-on for a single to bring up the 150.

Shami to Rizwan, FOUR, these two Gray Nicolls wielders are just finding the gaps with those sticks! Another short one, and he nails the pull into the deep backward square leg fence for four!

Shami to Rizwan, FOUR, fuller length ball on the pads, and that's a bottom-handed swat down to deep mid-wicket for four!

Shami to Rizwan, SIX, that's a full-toss out of India's nightmares in this situation! A waist-high full-toss, and Rizwan swivels on his heel to play a big pick-up over fine leg for a second-tier six. The writing is on the wall now. It's nearly etched on the wall..

Bhuvneshwar to Babar Azam, no run, another one on the tramline, Babar Azam has left that alone again, but that's not been given a time. "Cricket is a great leveller". Well, the umpires are, in this case...

Bhuvneshwar to Babar Azam, 2 runs, length ball outside off, and that's a cross-batted slap by Babar Azam down to long-off for a couple

Bhuvneshwar to Babar Azam, wide, it's on the tramline, but it's been given a wide, left alone by Babar

Bhuvneshwar to Rizwan, 1 run, full and just outside off, Rizwan drives that bottom-handed down towards wide long-off for a single

Bhuvneshwar to Rizwan, wide, Rizwan charges, Kumar aims for the tramline, gets it far too wide and it's been called by the umpire