India vs Pakistan--one of cricket's greatest and oldest rivalries is all set to take centre-stage when these two sides take on each other in the ICC Men's World T20. Both these sides have been placed in the same group which means that they would play against each other in the Super 12 stage in the competition starting from October 17 in Oman and UAE. This announcement was made on Friday and was met with a lot of reactions from fans. The tournament was shifted to the middle east after the COVID-19 situation in India went out of hand few months ago. India and Pakistan Drawn in Same Group At ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021; Netizens Express Excitement (See Reactions)

Coming back to the India vs Pakistan matches, both these sides have come up with some classic encounters at the competition ever since it began for the first time in 2007. India have maintained a winning record so far, securing victories in all the five matches but nothing can be predicted beforehand. Here's a list of the top five matches between India and Pakistan at T20 World Cups:

 

1) ICC 2007 World T20 final: An inaugural T20I event and what better way to make it memorable than to have a India vs Pakistan final? Gautam Gambhir struck 75 runs and he was supported by Rohit Sharma's 30 as India ended with 157/5 on the board. Pakistan looked well on course to chase down the total and win the inaugural T20 World Cup final but things didn't work out that way. Misbah Ul-Haq, who held fort for Pakistan at the crease made an error in judgement and tried to scoop a delivery by Joginder Sharma in the final over. He was caught, Pakistan had lost and India celebrated the birth of a new leader in MS Dhoni.

2) ICC 2007 World T20 Group stage match: Before facing off in the finals, India and Pakistan had met in the group stage in Durban as well. That match also wasn't anything short of excitement and drama. Pakistan, while chasing India's 141, wasn't able to win the contest and the match moved over to the tie-breaker, which was a bowl-out session. India hit the stumps in all their attempts while Pakistan absolutely failed to do so.

3) ICC 2016 World T20 Super 10 match: An India vs Pakistan match at Kolkata is something which ardent cricket fans always look forward to and despite rain interrupting the match, it couldn't dampen the spirit of the game one single bit. The match was reduced to 18 overs a side and Pakistan batted first, scoring 118 runs in their innings. They didn't let India take the game away so easily as they reduced the hosts to 23/3 at one point of time. But they weren't able to stop Virat Kohli, who by then, had established himself as the world-class cricketer he is known as today. Kohli paced a tricky innings of 55 runs off 37 balls and took his side to a win at the end. Who could forget him bowing down and dedicating his knock to his idol Sachin Tendulkar, who was seated in the stands that night?

4) ICC 2012 World T20 Super 8 match: India once again found Pakistan on their path in the knockout stages of the 2012 edition of the T20 World Cup, held in Sri Lanka. India bowled first this time and Lakshmipathy Balaji, one of India's experienced campaigners, starred with three wickets as Pakistan were shot out for just 128 runs. Defending a low total like 128 is always a very challenging task and that too, against a side like India and Pakistan didn't quite manage to stop India from scoring all of those runs. India's chase was led by an in-form Virat Kohli, who smashed 78 runs off 61 deliveries to safely steer his side to a win.

5) ICC 2014 World T20 Super 10s: India once again dominated Pakistan in the 2014 T20 World Cup where they defeated their arch-rivals by seven wickets. Pakistan had batted first and could manage only 130/7 runs on the board. Amit Mishra was India's best bowler with figures of 2/22 in his four overs. In response, the Indian top-order was enough to ensure that they won the contest as the opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan scored 24 and 30 runs respectively. Virat Kohli (36*) and Suresh Raina (35*) then ensured that the result remained in India's favour with  nine balls to spare.

Both these sides have given innumerable contests and memories so far and when they face each other this time, it would once again be a clash to remember. Pakistan would hope they come out victorious this time while India would be more than happy to extend their winning record over their Asian neighbours in T20 World Cups.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 16, 2021 10:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).