Interesting Quotes and Tweets from India v Pakistan match

India and Pakistan played out yet another mouth-watering contest of cricket when both the sides met each other at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The rains had made everyone slightly nervous but eventually disappeared to make the game possible. MS Dhoni put Pakistan into bat after he won the toss in the 18 overs a side game.

The game itself was a very special occasion and was marked by the presence of numerous A-listers. There was a short and extraordinary felicitation function arranged to honor legends cricketing Imran Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Waqar Younis, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag and Wasim Akram.

Imran Khan, in his glaring black kurta, was the first to take the mic and thanked Kolkata for the warm welcome. He finished his short speak in a very amusing manner saying that he hopes that there will be a great game and hopes that the result will be the same…..when he last played for Pakistan on this ground.

“Hope to see the same results as when I last played in Calcutta! Kolkata! Good Luck to Pakistan’s cricket team & hope for the best.”

Then came West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee. She kept her speech short, thanking the ICC, BCCI and the CAB for the opportunity given to Kolkata and assured that the ground is ready to provide all the facilities and host many more such games.

Sachin Tendulkar then arrived at the podium and was welcomed with a big reception from the crowd. The master blaster greeted the crowd in Bengali and said that he hopes for the match to be fantastic.

“Nice to see the stalwarts from Pakistan, we welcome them here . we hope for a fantastic match.”

More excitingly, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Pakistani singer Shafqat Amanat Ali sung the National anthems of their respective countries.

The marquee then kicked off with Pakistan coming into bat and setting a target of 119 runs for India to chase on a tough wicket. India started off shakily as the Pakistan fast bowlers landed early blows. However, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli then batted brilliantly to save India. Yuvi soon fell but Virat Kohli continued knocking runs along with MS Dhoni to guide India to a simple 6 wicket win eventually.

Speaking at the post-match conference, Virat Kohli appreciated his senior team-mate for helping him bat without any pressure and spoke about how it was to bat under those challenging conditions.

“It was a challenging wicket out there. You need new challenges every innings that you play. I was disappointed that I got out for about 25 in the last game. I knew if I had scored 40-45 we could have won. That really hurt because we don’t bat like that at home. Today it was all about keeping calm and luckily I got a great partnership with Yuvraj. 49 odd I scored in Dhaka against Pakistan was probably one of my better knocks. I think the seamers bowling cutters was a little difficult. You need to watch the ball to play it late to dab it down to third man. Yuvraj came out, weathered the storm and smacked a few. It’s great for him that he came out in a pressure situation. He’s feeling confident. I think a score on the board always helps me calculate better (talking about his success in run-chases),” Kohli said.

Kohli won over everybody’s heart with his spectacular batting. The flamboyant cricketer received praises from all corners for his match-winning performance.