ICC ODI World Cup 2023 India vs Pakistan Talking points: Rohit Sharma sizzles with big sixes, bowlers put in a team effort

Rohit Sharma continued from where he left off at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday, blazing his way to a 63-ball 86 against Pakistan at Ahmedabad on Saturday.

During the course of the innings on Saturday, Sharma also got to the 300 sixes mark in ODI cricket. Earlier in the tournament, he had gone past Chris Gayle for the most sixes hit in international cricket, across all three formats.

Indian bowlers bounce back after poor start

At 155-2 in the 30th over, it seemed like India would be chasing a tall score in the second innings. But the bowlers then staged a superb comeback with everyone coming to the party to dismiss the remaining eight Pakistan batters for 36 runs and put India on top after the first innings.

The key standout features of the performance in the second half of the innings were Kuldeep Yadav removing Saud Shakeel and Iftikhar Ahmed in the same over and Jasprit Bumrah dismissing Mohammad Rizwan with a peach of a slower ball.

Babar returns to form

After a quite start to the tournament, Babar Azam showed the first signs of the player the world has been so used to seeing for many years with a 58-ball 50 with seven hits to the fence.

Azam adjusted well to the slower conditions on offer at the Narendra Modi Stadium and would have hoped to converted the start into a century but was bowled by Mohammad Siraj. In hindsight, his dismissal proved to be a turning point in Pakistan's innings.

India maintain winning run over Pakistan in ODI World Cups

India's domination over Pakistan in ODI World Cups continued on Saturday as they made it eight wins out of eight matches with yet another clinical performance.

The two teams first played in an ODI World Cup at the 1992 edition of the tournament in Australia and since then, have faced one another in every edition of the ODI World Cup barring 2007.