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India’s Asia Cup 2018 wins over Pakistan are historic

Rajneesh Gupta gives us all the dazzling numbers.

Twice India have played Pakistan in Asia Cup 2018 and twice they have thrashed them.

In the first game, India registered its biggest win against Pakistan in terms of balls to spare.

In the return game on Sunday, India registered its largest win over the arch-rivals in terms of wickets.

India’s biggest wins over Pakistan

(in terms of wickets)

Margin Target Venue Year
9 wkts 238 Dubai 2018
8 wkts 287 Karachi 2006
8 wkts 213 Dhaka 1998
8 wkts 177 Melbourne 1985
8 wkts 171 Toronto 1996
8 wkts 163 Dubai 2018
8 wkts 102 Birmingham 2013

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan put on 210 runs for the opening wicket to take India through.

The 210-run partnership is India’s highest opening stand and second highest for any wicket against Pakistan.

It is also India’s highest ever opening stand in a chase in ODIs. Take a look:

India’s highest partnerships vs Pakistan

Runs Wicktt Batsman Batsman Venue Year
 231 2nd Sachin Tendulkar Navjot Singh Sidhu Sharjah 1996
210 1st Rohit Sharma Shikhar Dhawan Dubai 2018
 201 3rd Virender Sehwag Rahul Dravid Kochi 2005
 198 2nd Virender Sehwag Suresh Raina Karachi 2008
 179 2nd Sourav Ganguly Robin Singh Dhaka 1998

India’s highest opening partnerships in a chase

Runs Batsman Batsman Vs Venue Year
210 Rohit Sharma Shikhar Dhawan Pakistan Dubai 2018
 201* Gautam Gambhir Virender Sehwag New Zealand Hamilton 2009
 197* Sourav Ganguly Sachin Tendulkar Zimbabwe Sharjah 1998
 196 Sourav Ganguly Virender Sehwag The West Indies Rajkot 2002
 192 Virender Sehwag Sourav Ganguly England Colombo RPS 2002

The 210 run stand is now the highest for Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in ODIs, beating the 178-run partnership against Australia at Nagpur in October 2013.

It is now the fourth highest opening stand for India in all ODIs.

India’s highest opening partnerships

Runs Batsman Batsman Vs Venue Year
 258 Sourav Ganguly Sachin Tendulkar Kenya Paarl 2001
 252 Sourav Ganguly Sachin Tendulkar Sri Lanka Colombo RPS 1998
 231 Ajinkya Rahane Shikhar Dhawan Sri Lanka Cuttack 2014
210 Rohit Sharma Shikhar Dhawan Pakistan Dubai 2018
201* Gautam Gambhir Virender Sehwag New Zealand Hamilton 2009

The Rohit Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan partnership is now the second best for the opening wicket against Pakistan in all ODIs.

Highest opening partnerships vs Pakistan

Runs Batsman Batsman For Venue Year
284 David Warner Travis Head Australia Adelaide 2017
210 Rohit Sharma Shikhar Dhawan India Dubai 2018
202 Upul Tharanga Mahela Jayawardene Sri Lanka Dambulla 2009
193 Stephen Fleming Nathan Astle New Zealand Dunedin 2001
190 Gary Kirsten Michael Rindel South Africa Johannesburg 1995
182 Gordon Greenidge Desmond Haynes West Indies Melbourne 1981
175* Desmond Haynes Brian Lara West Indies Melbourne 1992

The partnership is now the second highest for the opening wicket and the fourth highest for any wicket in the Asia Cup.

Highest partnerships in Asia Cup

Runs Wkt Batsman Batsman Teams Venue Year
224 1st Mohammad Hafeez Nasir Jamshed Pak v Ind Mirpur 2012
223 3rd Shoaib Malik Younis Khan Pak v HK Colombo SSC 2004
213 3rd Virat Kohli Ajinkya Rahane Ind v Ban Fatullah 2014
210 1st Rohit Sharma Shikhar Dhawan Ind v Pak Dubai 2018
205 3rd Moin-ul-Atiq Ijaz Ahmed Pak v Ban Chittagong 1988
205 2nd Gautam Gambhir Virat Kohli Ind v SL Mirpur 2012
201 1st Sanath Jayasuriya Kumar Sangakkara SL v Ban Karachi 2008

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have now put on 13 century stands, which puts them ahead of the Virender Sehwag-Sachin Tendulkar pair in ODIs.

Now only three pairs have posted more century opening stands than this pair.

Rohit and Shikhar have the best record in terms of innings per century stand.

Most opening century stands in ODIs

100-stands Innings Players Innings/100-stand
21 136 Ganguly-Tendulkar 6.48
16 114 Gilchrist-Hayden 7.13
15 102 Greenidge-Haynes 6.80
13 82 Rohit-Shikhar 6.31
12 93 Sehwag-Tendulkar 7.75
10 83 Amla-de Kock 8.30

Shikhar Dhawan seems to have a knack for the major tournaments.

In all three major ODI tournaments — the World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup, he has amazing success. Take a look:

Shikhar Dhawan in major tournaments

  Innings Not Out Runs Highest Score Average 100 50
World Cup 8 0 412 137 51.50 2 1
ICC Champions Trophy 10 1 701 125 77.88 3 3
Asia Cup 8 0 519 127 64.27 2 2

Shikhar Dhawan, in fact, has the highest average among all batsmen who have played a meaningful innings in all three major tournaments — even better than Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli!

Highest career batting average in World Cup + Champions Trophy + Asia Cup

Minimum 3 innings in each tournament

  Innings Not Out Runs Highest Svore Average 100 50
Shikhar Dhawan 26 1 1,632 137 65.28 7 6
Sourav Ganguly 44 7 2,189 183 59.16 8 10
Virat Kohli 39 9 1,729 183 57.63 5 7
Saeed Anwar 34 6 1,524 113* 54.42 5 6
Sachin Tendulkar 79 8 3,690 152 51.97 9 23
Rahul Dravid 45 9 1,821 145 50.58 3 14

Photograph: BCCI/Twitter

Source: Rediff