Twitter Reactions: Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli hammer Pakistan to post 336 runs in Manchester

The much-awaited encounter between India and Pakistan got underway on Sunday at the Old Trafford in Manchester. All the eyes were on the weather in the city in the lead up to the game and even the clouds cleared to witness one of the biggest matches in the sport. And the Indian batsmen didn’t disappoint the jam-packed crowd by smashing the Pakistan bowlers to all parts of the ground to post a huge total of 336 runs after 50 overs even as their innings was hampered a bit due to rain towards the end.

Sarfaraz Ahmed, as expected, opted to field after winning the all-important toss and to everyone’s surprise, the sun was brimming over the Old Trafford within the first hour after the play started. There was a bit of movement for the pacers which Mohammad Amir tried to extract but he was played out cautiously by KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. Runs were coming swiftly from the other end with Hasan Ali erring in line and length consistently and that put the pressure back on Pakistan.

Rohit Sharma was the aggressor on the day in Shikhar Dhawan‘s absence and literally got off the blocks quickly. he got to his half-century off just 34 deliveries and looked to take the game away from the opposition. Meanwhile, Rahul also got into his elements and though the ball spun a bit, it didn’t trouble the duo at all. Rahul also had a chance to get a big score but got out to Wahab Riaz soon after getting to the milestone scoring 57 runs off 78 deliveries.

Nevertheless, the stage was set for the King Virat Kohli to arrive and the Indian captain got going from the word go without much fuss.

After Rohit, Virat pummels Pakistan

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got together at 136/1 in the 24th over of the innings and the run-scoring didn’t go down at any stage. They cleverly targetted the opposition bowlers and kept churning out the runs. While Rohit’s disdainful shots were brilliant to watch, Kohli’s crisp drives were extremely pleasing to the eyes. Soon, the former got to his 24th ODI century and started tonking the ball in an even better manner.

At one stage, he looked set for his fourth double century but unnecessarily tried to play a lap shot only to get caught at the short fine leg. His 140-run knock had set the platform for the middle-order to launch an assault and that is what Hardik Pandya did. But he couldn’t do much damage this time scoring only 26 runs. However, Virat Kohli had taken over by then and he also crossed the 50-run mark for the 92nd time in his ODI career.

He played some scintillating strokes which were a pure class from the world number one batsman and threatened to go berserk. In the meantime, MS Dhoni was also dismissed soon by Mohammad Amir who also took Pandya’s wicket and this is when the rain played spoilsport. The match was interrupted in the 47th over and after a 45-minute break, India lost Kohli soon on 77. Interestingly the Indian captain walked without even nicking the ball.

Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar then added 22 runs in last 14 deliveries as India finished strongly on 336 runs for the loss of five wickets after 50 overs. For Pakistan, Mohammad Amir was the best bowler as he returned with the figures of 3/47. At the halfway mark, India are looking the favourites and Pakistan will have to gun down the biggest chase in the World Cup ever to win this contest.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the blockbuster innings: