New York: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan will clash at the Twenty20 World Cup in New York on Sunday for the 13th time in cricket's shortest format. The two nuclear-armed nations only face each other in international tournaments due to political tensions and last met in a 2022 T20 World Cup encounter in Melbourne, when India won. The tally in their T20 encounters so far stands in India's favour with nine wins to three -- but the honours are even in their last four matches.
AFP looks back at five memorable India-Pakistan T20 matches: India and Pakistan's first T20 encounter at Durban in 2007 ended in a dramatic tie before being decided in a bowl-out -- cricket's equivalent of football's penalty shoot-out. Pakistan elected to field in the group match in the inaugural T20 World Cup and restricted India to 141-9. With the scores level at the end of Pakistan's reply India skipper MS Dhoni then outfoxed the opposition by choosing non-specialists to try to hit the wicket, rather than regular bowlers used to tempting batsmen to offer catches.
Part-time bowlers Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa and premier spinner Harbhajan Singh all hit the stumps, while Pakistan's top-line pacemen Yasir Arafat and Umar Gul, and spinner Shahid Afridi all missed. It is the only time a World Cup match has been decided by a bowl-out, with the tiebreaker now replaced by a super over. After meeting in the group stage of that inaugural World Cup in 2007, the two rivals went on to face each other again 10 days .
