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20-01-2021
Bureau Report
KARACHI/ LAHORE: Pakistani cricket stars and fans have celebrated India’s upset win over Australia in a rare instance of bonhomie with their neighbors.
The arch-rivals rarely play outside of major tournaments due to political tensions.
Their contests remain one of sport’s biggest games and bitterest rivalries.
On Tuesday, injury-hit India chased 328 to hand Australia a first Test defeat in Brisbane since 1988 and win one of the all-time great series 2-1.
Some of Pakistan’s top former cricketers praised what many say was one of India’s “greatest wins ever”.
Elated fans made “Congratulations India” trend on Pakistani Twitter.
Since 1947, cricketing relations between India and Pakistan have been “as turbulent and unpredictable as their political relations”, according to historian David Page.
“In times of hostility and war, there have been long periods without matches. Even when the teams have met in more peaceful times, the atmosphere has often been surcharged with nationalist, if not chauvinist, feeling,” Page wrote in a book on the cricketing history of the two nations.
India and Pakistan last played in June 2019 in a World Cup match in England. India won the game by 89 runs. In the past decade, they have played each other 19 times.
Despite the partisan crowds and jingoism that usually mark an India-Pakistan game, there are serious cricket fans on both sides of the border that have a lot of respect for the opposition.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, with the last full war between them taking place in 1971. They came to came to the brink of war in 2019 over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Relations between the nuclear powers nosedived further last year after India expelled half the staff at Pakistan’s High Commission (embassy) in its capital Delhi, accusing diplomats of spying and dealing with terrorists.
