It is a run that started nearly 23 years ago, in Sydney in March 1992, when India beat Pakistan in the first World Cup meeting between the two neighbors. There have been five more such encounters since, and India wrapped up their sixth straight World Cup win over Pakistan last night at Adelaide Oval. It is a perplexing blank across multiple eras for Pakistan, considering their strong overall record against India.
At the post-match press conference, a blank-faced Misbah-ul-Haq, who had made yet another fighting half-century in a losing cause against MS Dhoni’s men, was asked if he could explain the reason behind 0-6. “I don’t know. This is happening. You can’t do anything about that,” was all the disappointed Pakistan captain could offer.
Dhoni said that it was obviously something for India to be proud of, but he refused to read too much into the trend, holding that it was bound to end at some edition of the World Cup some day, and that Pakistan were a “fantastic side.”
“The record is good, but it is something that I don’t want to get into because there will come a time when we will lose, irrespective of whether it happens this World Cup, next World Cup or four World Cups down the line,” Dhoni said. “It is not something that will stay until the world exists. No point in really thinking about it.
“Yes, we are proud of the fact that we have done it, but if you just see the stats, India-Pakistan stats, we are way behind when it comes to that. They have really dominated. I feel definitely the World Cup is something that we can, to some extent, be proud of, but overall you have to see, they are a fantastic side. They don’t have the kind of players that they had, but still, if you see from a talent point, they’ve got good fast bowlers.”
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