India vs Pak: A rivalry reduced to one-sided spectacle

When the script follows a predictable path without any twists and turns, even the desired result tastes insipid. India, not for the first time in recent years, just romped home, delivering many knockout punches that left Pakistan wounded in body, mind, flesh and even the soul.

This was not an unexpected end to a rivalry which still draws a billion viewers, with advertisers and television channels shrieking hoarse to create a hysteria around the match with one sole aim, to fill its coffers. But for how long will the cricket market and sentiments fuelled by nationalism deceive the vast audiences buying into this false advertising blitz?

Pakistan’s descent into a cricketing abyss may be relished by the jingoistic Indian fans, but it leaves the sport poorer and its multiple stakeholders worried. It is hard to imagine today that Pakistan is a nation which produced the likes of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq and many, many others. The reasons and diagnosis may not be for us here in India to find and address. But nothing stops us from expressing our concern that Pakistan should not go the West Indies way.

In sharp contrast to the timid, fearful and insecure Pakistan approach to the game stood the mighty Indian warriors. Has there been a fitter, leaner, meaner combatant than Virat Kohli in cricketing history? I doubt very much. At 36 years of age, sporting an all muscle and bone frame of 5 feet 9 inches, Kohli runs like a terrier, focuses like a monk and his bottomless self-belief can shake even the mountains. He was battling a lack of form and yet produced an innings of chiselled discipline that left Pakistan bowlers confused and clueless.

If Kohli is all boundless energy, Shubman Gill is elegance personified. His movements have a grace, with strokes of pristine beauty, much like that of a ballet dancer, that take away the spectators’ breath away. With Shreyas Iyer unleashing more muscle and power in his strokes than the Kohli-Gill combine, Pakistan had nowhere to hide. It didn’t matter that Rohit Sharma, more bulk than muscle, failed to get going.