Virender Sehwag, a former Indian opener, believes Pakistan and India would both be filled with confidence before their highly awaited match on Saturday, October 14.
Pakistan achieved the highest successful chase in World Cup history, scoring 345/4 against Sri Lanka. Similarly, India convincingly defeated Afghanistan by eight wickets. As a result, both teams remain undefeated in the tournament with two victories each.
In an interview with Cricbuzz following India’s victory over Afghanistan, Virender Sehwag shared his thoughts on the intense battle between these two rival teams.
“Absolutely, when you have two back-to-back wins, you do get a lot of confidence and you do go into the next game feeling a lot better. Even if you are facing a bigger team, you still believe that you can beat them. Pakistan also are coming into the match against India with a record chase so they will also have high confidence, among the two teams whoever handles the pressure better will win.”
Virender Sehwag
Parthiv Patel, a former wicketkeeper who participated in the conversation, concurred with Sehwag’s viewpoint. Added him:
“As Viru said, Pakistan are also coming into this encounter on the back of a big win. I was sitting out in the IND vs PAK World Cup encounter, but I know that it is all about pressure and who handles it the best. It will be played in Ahmedabad with 1,30,000 people looking on. It is all about handling that pressure.”
Parthiv Patel
Parthiv Patel Lauds India’s Net Run Rate Improvement
The Men in Blue successfully finishing the chase against Afghanistan in 35 overs made Parthiv Patel very happy. He thinks that teams should strive to finish with a higher net run rate if they are certain they will win the game since it might become vital at the conclusion of the tournament.
In reply, he said:
“When you are in the early stages of a league stage of a tournament, and if you get in a position of winning the game, you have to look at increasing the net run rate and that is exactly what they did. With 273 runs to chase. I don’t think they could have done it any sooner than 35 overs.”
Parthiv Patel
The hosts will now want to make it three wins in a row and maintain their dominance over Pakistan in ODI World Cups.