Are India-Pakistan matches really showpiece encounters of the World Cup?

Ahmedabad: It was another humiliation for Pakistan against India in the ICC World Cup at the packed Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday night as it lost by seven wickets. After the defeat, all Pakistan players gave warm hugs to Shereyas Iyer and KL Rahul. 

This is the night visitors wanted to end as soon as they could because they wanted to end their misery. It was another psychological battle in the World Cup in which Pakistan surrendered meekly again. It is now 8-0 in favour of India in the World Cup matches.

This was the eighth match in the ICC World Cup between India and Pakistan. After winning the toss, Rohit Sharma decided to chase second time in the World Cup matches against Pakistan.

Last time, India batted second in Centurion, and it won that encounter by 6 wickets with 26 balls remaining to bowl.

Even when India batted first in the remaining six matches of the earlier ICC World Cup matches, Pakistan had finished its full inning only once.

Pakistan came to this match after chasing a record total against Sri Lanka but the way it collapsed again against India in the World Cup for the eighth time in a row, it seems that it will take many years to break this jinx.

This match also raised the question of whether it is logical to label India-Pakistan matches as showpiece encounters of the World Cup!

From 1992 to the last evening, all the India matches with Pakistan ended one-sided. This data also shows that, rather than cricket, marketing is the biggest force behind the revenue-oriented hype.

A day before this match, Pakistan captain Babar Azam said, "I don't focus on the past; I try to focus on the future." Such records are made to be broken, and I try to break them. I will try to give a good performance tomorrow. It depends on the day and how you play. "I believe my team did well in the first two matches and will do well in the next matches as well.

The result of the Ahmedabad ODI has proved the ghost of the failure against India is still alive, and the way it surrendered here will haunt Pakistan in the coming years as well.