Waqar Younis reveals why India always had an upper hand over Pakistan in World Cups

Waqar Younis has revealed why Pakistan have never succeeded in getting the better of arch-rivals India in World Cups. Even though Pakistan have an edge when it comes to overall head-to-head encounters (73-54 in ODIs & 12-9 in Tests), they have failed to bring their A-game during the quadrennial events as the Men In Blue hold an unassailable 7-0 record in all their World Cup encounters in 1992, 1996,1999,2003, 2011, 2015, and 2019 respectively.

'Had an upper hand': Waqar Younis 

“Over the last few World Cups, Pakistan have not won against India. We did well in other formats, we did well in Test matches, but when it comes to World Cups and ODI Cricket, India has always had an upper hand on us. And they deserve it. I think they played better cricket than us,” said Waqar Younis while answering a fan’s question on the Twitter platform @GloFansOfficial.
“I remember in Bangalore and back in I think that was in Pretoria in 2003. I remember most of them and I think I have played a couple of them. So they were a very good side and I think on that particular day they just came out with a very positive frame of mind, they played better cricket and played smartly. We did not play smartly", the former fast bowler added.

"We had games in our hands. If you look at the World Cup in 2011 and then of course back in ’96 also we had the game in our hand, but it is just, we… we just threw it away. It is hard to pinpoint why we do that, maybe, it’s just the pressure of the World Cup now because it happens so many times, it is just the psychological pressure on us that we just cannot really win against them but yeah, it’s very very difficult to pinpoint on one thing,” the ex-Pakistani skipper added.

 

Younis had led the 1992 World Cup winners during the 2003 edition of the showpiece event that was played in South Africa. Both he and Wasim Akram were well past their prime by then and did not have a good campaign either. 

India and Pakistan had locked horns on March 1, 2003, at the Supersport Park in Centurion where the Men In Green had set India a stiff target of 274 runs. However, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag smashed the Pak bowlers to all corners of the ground and seemed to be in a hurry to finish off the proceedings. But, Waqar brought Pakistan right back into the contest by accounting for Sehwag and skipper Sourav Ganguly off successive deliveries. Sachin and Kaif kept the scoreboard ticking.
Unfortunately, Tendulkar was done by an awkward bouncer from Shoaib Akhtar and was caught at point for a well-made 98. It could have been anyone's match from thereon but, stellar middle-order contributions from Rahul Dravid (44*) and Yuvraj Singh (50*) helped the eventual runners-up of that tournament pull off a famous win by six wickets. 

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