The first ever test match between India and Pakistan was played at Delhi from 16–19 October 1952. It was a four-day test, India required just three days to beat Pakistan by an innings and 70 runs. India won the 5-match series 2–1. The following two test series of 5 tests each were draws. Pakistan's first series win against India came after 26 years, in the 1978–79 series.
India has always beaten Pakistan in World Cup clashes. Pakistan leads India in the number of wins in Tests (12–9) and One Day Internationals (72–51) While India leads Pakistan in T20s (4-1).
India has continued its World Cup winning streak by beating Pakistan in their 2015 World Cup Match on 15 February 2015 by 76 runs. India leads Pakistan 22-12 in Major World Level/ Tournament matches mainly due to the 10-0 margin in World Cup matches be it 50 over or T20 World Cups.India dominates Pakistan once again in the International/ World Level Trophy wins 13-6, Pakistan similarly outperforms India 13-5 in other ICC held events. Pakistan lead India by a margin of 51-28 in matches played at India,Pakistan and Sharjah. India have a small advantage over Pakistan 23-21 in matches played at other neutral venues spread over Australia, England, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Why this rivalry???
The partition of British India in 1947 that led to the creation of an independent India and Pakistan was characterised by intense and bloody conflict between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs that left one million people dead. An estimated ten million people migrated to the nation of their choice. The bloody legacy of the partition and the subsequent emergence of territorial disputes and wars being fought over them have all added to the growth of intense rivalries in field hockey, association football but especially in cricket, which had been developed during British colonial rule and is the most popular sport in both nations. Many of the players in the first post-independence teams of India and Pakistan had played together as team-mates in regional and local tournaments.
Pakistan became a permanent member of the International Cricket Council in 1948, and their tour of India was their first in Test cricket history. They lost the first Test in Delhi to India, but won the second Test in Lucknow, which led to an angry reaction from the home crowd against the Indian players. India clinched the Test series after winning the third Test in Bombay, but the intense pressure affected the players of both teams to the point that they pursued mainly defensive tactics that led to drawn matches and whole series without a victor. When India toured Pakistan in 1955, thousands of Indian fans were granted visas to go to the Pakistani city of Lahore to watch the Test match. But both the 1955 series and Pakistan's tour of India in 1961 ended in a drawn series with no test yielding a winner or loser. Complaints about the fairness of umpires also became routine.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and subsequent Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 put a hold on India-Pakistan cricket that lasted till 1978, when India toured Pakistan and cricket resumed for a brief period. In the post-1971 period, politics became a direct factor in the holding of cricketing events. India has suspended cricketing ties with Pakistan several times following terrorist attacks or other hostilities. The resumption of cricketing ties in 1978 came with the emergence of heads of government in both India and Pakistan who were not directly connected with the 1971 war and coincided with their formal initiatives to normalize bilateral relations. Shortly after a period of belligerency during the Operation Brasstacks war games, Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq was invited to watch the India-Pakistan test match being played in the Indian city of Jaipur. This form of cricket diplomacy has occurred several times afterwards as well. Pakistan toured India in 1979, but an Indian tour of Pakistan in 1984 was cancelled mid-way due to the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In the late 1980s and for most of the 1990s, India and Pakistan squared-off on neutral venues such as Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and in Toronto, Canada, where large audiences of expatriates regularly watched them play. The series between the teams in Canada in the 1990s and early 2000s were officially known as the "Friendship Cup". Sharjah even though a neutral venue was considered as the "back yard of Pakistan" given the close proximity and the massive support the team generated.
The rise of multinational competitions such as the Cricket World Cup, ICC World Twenty20 the Austral-Asia Cup and the Asia Cup led to more regular albeit briefer contests.
In 1999, immediately following Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's historic visit to Pakistan, the Pakistani team toured India for Test matches and played in an ODI competition before the Kargil War again put bilateral relations in deep freeze. Prime Minister Vajpayee's peace initiative of 2003 led to India touring Pakistan after a gap of almost 15 years. Subsequent exchange tours were held in 2005 and 2006 before the 2008 Mumbai attacks led to the suspension of India's planned tour of Pakistan in 2009 and all future engagements in Pakistan. India was scheduled to begin the tour of Pakistan from 13 January to 19 February 2009, but was cancelled because of the tension existing between the two countries after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
The rise of domestic terrorism led to Pakistan not hosting international cricket since the Sri Lankan team was attacked in 2009, and Pakistan was stripped of its co-host status for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. India and Pakistan qualified for the first semi-final in Chandigarh, India, and the Indian government invited the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the match along with his Indian counterpart, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Bilateral ties finally resumed when BCCI invited the Pakistan national team to tour India for 3 ODIs and 2 T20s in December 2012. The three ODIs were held in New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai with Ahmedabad and Bangalore hosted two Twenty20 fixtures.
In March 2013, 66 Kashmiri students studying at Swami Vivekanand Subharti University in Meerut, India were expelled and briefly threatened with sedition charges because they cheered for the Pakistani cricket team during a televised match against India at the Asia Cup.
On 27 June 2014, Pakistan Cricket Board stated that an agreement to play 6 bilateral series has been signed with BCCI during the ICC annual conference in Melbourne.
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