A target of 192 set by the Pakistan cricket team was unlikely to prove sufficient for them to stretch India. India captain and opener Rohit Sharma’s thunderous knock made a mockery of the Pakistan bowling attack, which included the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Hasan Ali.
Courtesy of Rohit Sharma’s blinder of a knock, 86 runs in 63 balls, and Shreyas Iyer’s composure-filled half-century, 53* runs in 62 balls, India gunned down the target of 192 runs in only 30.3 overs. This extended India’s unbeaten streak against Pakistan to 8-0 in ODI World Cups as the 130,000-strong crowd assembled at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad danced and cheered, and so did the over a billion fans in the country and across the world.
Also pleased with India’s victory over Pakistan were some of the diplomats in Israel. Naor Gilon, the Ambassador of Israel to India, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, who resides in Israel, which is currently in a war-like situation with the Hamas organization in Gaza in Palestine, took to Twitter to congratulate India on defeating Pakistan.
Ambassador of Israel thanked India for beating Pakistan
Gilon hinted that they had seen Mohammad Rizwan’s tweet for support to Gaza, and said that India’s victory over Pakistan meant Pakistanis wouldn’t be able to show support to the “terrorists of Hamas”.
Mohammad Rizwan had tweeted showing support for his “brothers and sisters” in Gaza after his match-winning century against Sri Lanka.
There was one fan in the Narendra Modi Stadium who bought a poster showing his support for Israel in its fight with Gaza.
Naor Gilon tweeted: “We are happy that #India🇮🇳emerged victorious in the #INDvsPAK match at #CWC23 and that Pakistan was unable to attribute its victory to the terrorists of Hamas.
“We were really moved by Indian friends showing their solidarity with Israel 🇮🇱 by displaying posters during the match. #Israel #IndiaVsPakistan #IndiaStandsWithIsrael #IStandWithIsrael”
Talking about the match, before Rohit Sharma’s sensational knock, it was a collective effort from the bowlers that set up the win. Jasprit Bumrah was the Man of the Match for his brilliant figures of 2/19 in 7 overs. Five bowlers – Bumrah, Kuldeep, Hardik, Jadeja, and Siraj – took two wickets each.
India’s next game is against Bangladesh in Pune on October 19.
