Pakistan have beaten India so much that they’d ask us for forgiveness after the match: Shahid Afridi

Afridi, who has scored 1524 runs in 67 ODIs and 709 runs from eights Tests against India, said he always got a kick out of playing against the Indian cricket team and that some of his career’s most enjoyable cricket has come while performing against India and Australia.

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“I have always enjoyed India. Unhe to theek-thaak mara hai humne. Itna mara hai unhe ki match ke baad maafiyan mangi hai unhone. (We’ve thrashed them a lot. I believe we’ve beaten them so much that they used to ask us for forgiveness after the match). I have enjoyed a lot playing against India and Australia, you have more pressure. They are good teams, big teams. Going and performing in their conditions is the big thing,” Afridi said on the Cric Cast show on YouTube.

Pakistan lead India 73-55 in ODIs, but it’s majorly based on their success in the 1980s. In the 30 matches played between the two teams in the 80s, Pakistan won 19 times, while India won only nine games. The trend followed in the 1990s as out of the 48 matches played, Pakistan were ahead of India 28-18.

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There was hardly anything to separate the two sides in the 2000s, even though India edged Pakistan 25-23. Between 2010 and 2020 though, India have zoomed ahead with a 10-4 lead with no draws on tie. This include three World Cup wins – in 2011, 2015 and 2019 (taking their overall World Cup tally to 7-0) and a 6-1 scoreline in T20Is.

Afridi, who has scored three Test and two ODI centuries against India, rated his innings of 141 in the 1999 Chennai Test as his favourite knock. In the second innings, opening the batting, Afridi struck 21 boundaries and three sixes as he and Inzamam Ul Haq helped recover Pakistan from 42/2. With wickets falling at one end, Afridi held up the other and scored a brilliant century to take Pakistan to a respectable total of 286.

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“My most memorable inning was the 141 against India, that too in India. I was not going on that trip; they were not taking me. Wasim bhai and the chief selector that time supported me a lot. It was a very difficult tour and that inning was very important,” Afridi added.