T20 World Cup 2021, India vs Pakistan: 7 interesting stat facts from the match

It's been almost 30 years and 13 matches but Pakistan finally have their first-ever World Cup win over India.

Unperturbed by history, Babar Azam's men put on a professional show to beat India by 10 wickets in the Group 2 opener of the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Pakistan had chalked out a plan – a blueprint for this win. It was one of those rare days where the plan and execution made peace and paired in harmony as the side scripted history.

Let’s dig into some numbers from this Dubai clash and list out seven interesting stat facts.

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#1 Firsts for Pakistan and a first for India

Starting March 1992 in Sydney until Sunday, Pakistan failed to win a single World Cup match (ODIs or T20s) against India. Sydney (1992), Bangalore (1996), Manchester (1999 and 2019), Centurion (2003), Durban (2007), Johannesburg (2007), Mohali (2011), Colombo (2012), Dhaka (2014), Adelaide (2015) and Kolkata (2016) witnessed Pakistan’s defeats to India in World Cup matches.

Dubai changed it for them as they beat India for the first time in a World Cup.

Additionally, Pakistan won a T20I by ten wickets for the first time. In a first for India, they too lost for the first time by a ten-wicket margin.

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#2 A batting average for Virat Kohli, finally

Virat Kohli finally has a batting average against Pakistan in T20 World Cups. The Indian captain was finally dismissed after four innings (78*, 36*, 55* and 57) in nine years. He averages 226 at a strike rate of 126.3.

Apart from being the first Indian captain to register a 50+ score in the tournament, he also became the first batter to register ten scores over fifty in the mega event.

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#3 The prolific batting pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan stitched together their fourth century partnership (from 16 innings) in T20Is. In doing so, they went level with Shikhar Dhawan-Rohit Sharma (from 52 innings) and Martin Guptill-Kane Williamson (from 27 innings).

The unbeaten 152-run opening stand is the Pakistan pair’s third 150+ stand in T20Is. They remain the only pair to do so, and remarkably, all of their century stands have come in 2021.

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#4 Pakistan’s love affair with UAE

Once their home country, Pakistan, have enjoyed playing in the UAE. They have now won 12 matches in a row in the UAE, out of which seven have come at Dubai.

Their last T20I defeat in the country came in November 2015.

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#5 Shaheen Afridi’s menacing first overs

Another Afridi, donning the number '10', torments India.

Shaheen Afridi swung the match in Pakistan’s favor with the early wickets of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. He later dismissed Virat Kohli as well to register figures of three for 31 from his four overs.

Rohit Sharma became Shaheen Afridi’s 21st wicket in the first over of a T20 innings that he has bowled. Since his T20 debut in February 2018, he has bowled the first over of a T20 innings 59 times. Imad Wasim is next on the list, with 13 wickets during this timeframe.

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#6 Rohit Sharma’s duck tales

Rohit Sharma became the only Indian player to feature in all the seven men’s T20 World Cups. He also got his third golden duck in T20Is.

Rohit Sharma has the second-most ducks (20) in T20 cricket, registered by an Indian. Piyush Chawla tops the list with 21. Before this match, the Indian vice-captain was tied with Ajinkya Rahane, Yusuf Pathan and Dinesh Karthik at 19.

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#7 A day of milestones

The day witnessed several milestones, including the 200th international game between India and Pakistan.

Adding a few to the above list, it was the first time India played a T20 match in the World Cup without MS Dhoni leading the side.

For Pakistan, Mohammad Rizwan ensured that his T20I average in 2021 crossed the 100-mark. With 831 runs, he already has the most T20I runs in a calendar year.