Sachin Tendulkar prefers India winning the World Cup over just one game vs Pakistan

India will meet arch-rivals Pakistan in the ICC World Cup at Old Trafford on June 16. The derby is considered the biggest draw of the mega event this year. India and Pakistan have met in the World Cup six times since 1992 with the Men in Blue winning on all occasions. Their last meeting was in Adelaide in the World Cup 2015 there India won by 76 runs.

Former India batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has featured in five of the six India-Pakistan games in the World Cup and picked the Man of the Match award in three of them (1992, 2003 and 2011). He is of the opinion that the clash of June 16 should not attract too much focus as the main goal for Team India is to win the World Cup for the third time after 1983 and 2011.

“Since this question has been coming over the years I will answer the same way. In 2003 the people started calculating and said that no matter what happens you should win against Pakistan. This generates excitement in the people but they should understand that Indian team is going there win the World Cup and not just face one team,” Timesnownews.com cited Tendulkar as saying.

“So let’s hope for the World Cup win rather than just one single match. You just have to go and play good quality cricket and stick to the basics so that the results will follow the process.”

Both India and Pakistan had a poor beginning to their World Cup tour, losing their respective warm-up games. While Pakistan were stunned by Afghanistan by 3 wickets, India had a poor batting performance against New Zealand and lost by 6 wickets. Pakistan will play their first game in the World Cup against the Windies on May 31 while India will face South Africa on June 5.

Tendulkar had scored three vital fifties against Pakistan in the 1992, 2003 and 2011 editions. In 2003, his 98 against the Pakistan bowling attack that included Shoaib Akhtar remains a top knock in the history of the tournament while in 2011, he survived a number of chances to score 85 in the semi-final to give India a memorable win.

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