2019 Cricket World Cup: India-Pakistan hostility on hold as fans rub shoulders in stands

By Andrew Alderson at Old Trafford

COMMENT

If ever cricket fans need to make a case about the sport uniting rather than dividing, they must subpoena the India-Pakistan World Cup match in Manchester.

Myriad numbers have been tabled about the demand for tickets (divide circa half a million applicants by 26,000 Old Trafford seats) and the scarcity of matches supplied (last test in 2007 and last bilateral one-day international series 2012-13).

Tales of acrimony abound, too. Yet any animosity or hostility dissipated between the countries in a game which succumbed to India's cricketing dominance and the Duckworth-Lewis method's dispassionate algorithms when drizzle intervened.

Everyone found a way to arrive.

Word spread that 10 private jets landed at Manchester Airport; others trained from Birmingham or London; one chap rode in astride a white Clydesdale horse.

Everyone found a way to get a ticket. Nandor got his — "a bucket list item" — through an Indian agent; Shazia got lucky on the ballot; Mohammad, my Uber driver, got his for 90 quid on match day. He was buzzing, too, even though his beloved Pakistan lost.

Everyone found a way to negotiate the tension. Shoaib popped on a kaftan and used a green-sequined Pakistani flag as a shawl; Alisha and Sanjay waited in a cricket pitch length queue for samosas; former England spinner Graeme Swann slept between commentary shifts in the back of our overflow radio box after a night looking after his sick child.

Yet as the rain played what Naomi described as "hide and seek", the crowd roared: celebrating sixes, applauding diving saves, erupting at the fall of a wicket.

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed was prodded into answering whether the World Cup rivalry was "obsolete" given India have won all seven games at the tournament over 44 years.

He agreed things could tend to be grim under pressure, although the question failed to take into account their 180-run victory over India in the Champions Trophy final at The Oval two years ago.

Indian century-maker and man-of-the-match Rohit Sharma quipped: "The crowd was evenly poised, I would say 51 per cent Indian, 49 per cent Pakistani."

In reality, it seemed more Indian-skewed but the sight of both nations' flags waving alongside each other in packed stands was a nod to the event's spirit.

Sharma led the way with 140 as India scored 336-5. Pakistan faced a rain-reduced target of 302 but were restricted to 212-6 off 40 overs.