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March 17, 2007: How did both India and Pakistan lose against minnows?

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BDfanforever

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How did minnow BD and IRE knocked out Cricket giants IND and Pak during this historic day in World Cricket? This was definitely a turning point for BD Cricket although they havent reached a much higher level from that point on.

This day also made ICC rethink their format structure for World Cups.
 
It can happen in any sport. France lost to Senegal in 2002 WC. Who would've thought?

ATG Australia lost to BD in 2005. Australia also lost to Zimbabwe in 2007 World T20.

NZ lost to UAE a few years ago.

India lost to Kenya twice. Sri Lanka lost to Namibia.

Upsets can happen.
 
Tbh Bangladesh was a test team at that point and had defeated Pak in a world cup before and had also defeated Ind/Aus etc in ODIs before.
 
Both played bad cricket. Waiting for uncles to defend the pathetic performance by blaming the format.
 
That was the last minnow they lost to in an ICC event. It was a complacency thing for India For pakistan it was a combination of complacency and condition. Amir sohail was blaming West Indies deliberately giving them green top. Ian Bishop was totally silent when Sohail was ranting on and on about the pitch in the next West Indian match where the pitch was not green. Some Irish players were already playing pro cricket in English county.
 
jnaveen1980 said:
That was the last minnow they lost to in an ICC event. It was a complacency thing for India For pakistan it was a combination of complacency and condition. Amir sohail was blaming West Indies deliberately giving them green top. Ian Bishop was totally silent when Sohail was ranting on and on about the pitch in the next West Indian match where the pitch was not green. Some Irish players were already playing pro cricket in English county.
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The Zimbabwe Ireland game was a tie which gave Ireland an extra point. Pakistan by losing to WI and Ireland got knocked out. Inzi was past it and focused more on his tableeghi jamat activities than cricket.
 
Savak said:
Indian Cricket never looked back after the 2007 ODI WC whereas Pakistan Cricket continued sliding into Abyss
Click to expand...

Pakistan still managed to win 2 ICC trophies after the 2007 debacle. They also won series against Australia, England etc. So, I wouldn't say they slid into abyss.

I think Pakistan's real decline started from 2023.
 
T'was a farewell WC for most oldies.

Ones with very limited retirement earning options.

Just knowing inzi was part of this retiring cohort is sufficient to connect these dots. woolmer's "sudden death" is another clue.
 
Bhaijaan said:
PCT won two ICC events after that.

:hafeez
Click to expand...

Tbh ICC wins will be regarded as a fluke, one time event if they are not accompanied by being in the top rankings. India has won 4 ICC trophies and has also been a top team in all formats in the last decade whereas Pakistan has been in the bottom of the rankings.
 
What's funny is that any top team that loses against a minnow in an ICC event, they come back strongly in the next cycle i.e. IND 2011, ENG 2019. I have a feeling Pakistan will come very hard at other teams in the next T20 WC after losing against USA last time around. I can already see the changes happening with dropping off Riz Babar.
 
This is sport. Upsets happen. Anything can happen in a one off game. In soccer- Argentina lost to saudi of all teams and went on to win the WC
 
For Pakistan losing to the minnows, there were alot of things in play

First was Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif doping ban. They were caught with steroids in there body, got a ban, than got a relaxation, but than afterwards PCB decided to pull them as there was alot of controversy surrounding them both.

Than towards the lead up to the World Cup in West Indies, Pakistan used to play matches mostly on flat surfaces of Pakistan. Than, we had this false myth that since we are a nation of pace bowlers, lets choose pacers over spinners.

The 2006 champions trophy had established Bob Woolmer as a bad coach and Inzamam as a terrible captain. Inzi especially was known for being a walking wicket in ICC tournaments. There were too many tablighi jamat people and Inzi was known to be a Tabligihi who was more interested in spreading religion than captaining a cricket team.

In the first match against West Indies, Inzamam, Yousuf and Younis completely bottled the game as they were not able to bat and just threw there wickets away. I think it was Malik who just batted alone and tried to chase the target but the team just kept losing wickets.

Than came the second group game between Ireland vs Zim, and this match ended as a tie where points were shared between them both.

Than the third game came. Pakistan vs Ireland. Now you need to know that in Ireland, cricket is played on green seaming wickets. So when Pakistan and Ireland showed up at Kingston, a fresh green wicket was prepared for them. The trio of Younis, Yousuf and Inzi were again playing garbage. They just didnt know what was happening and for them it was as if Akram and Waqar were bowling. The millitary medium pacer, Andre Botha made such a mockey of this team that he ended the match with 8 overs, 5 runs, 2 wickets and 4 maidens. Boyd Rankin also took 3 wickets.

Pakistan barely scored 130ish runs. When they came out to defend it, the body language was so bad that even though Ireland's batting also sucked they just allowed Nial Obrien to play a match winning knock.

This is why I always disliked Inzi, Yousuf and Younus. These guys were garbage in ICC events.
 
Bangladesh just clean walloped a timid and unsure India. They were the better team with younger, fitter resources and they dominated game from start to finish.

Other than Yuvraj, the other senior India batters were all at sea. After 2 early wkts Sachin, Sourav and Rahul together combined for 50 runs in 18 overs on a slow but unthreatening pitch. At one point Sourav was 34 off 80 balls I remember.

People who were being apologists for Ganguly's terrible innings of 66(129) saying it was a minefield track got a rude shock when Munaf and Zaheer combined for a 30 run partnership in 4 ovs exposing the real nature of pitch.
 
Major said:
For Pakistan losing to the minnows, there were alot of things in play

First was Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif doping ban. They were caught with steroids in there body, got a ban, than got a relaxation, but than afterwards PCB decided to pull them as there was alot of controversy surrounding them both.

Than towards the lead up to the World Cup in West Indies, Pakistan used to play matches mostly on flat surfaces of Pakistan. Than, we had this false myth that since we are a nation of pace bowlers, lets choose pacers over spinners.

The 2006 champions trophy had established Bob Woolmer as a bad coach and Inzamam as a terrible captain. Inzi especially was known for being a walking wicket in ICC tournaments. There were too many tablighi jamat people and Inzi was known to be a Tabligihi who was more interested in spreading religion than captaining a cricket team.

In the first match against West Indies, Inzamam, Yousuf and Younis completely bottled the game as they were not able to bat and just threw there wickets away. I think it was Malik who just batted alone and tried to chase the target but the team just kept losing wickets.

Than came the second group game between Ireland vs Zim, and this match ended as a tie where points were shared between them both.

Than the third game came. Pakistan vs Ireland. Now you need to know that in Ireland, cricket is played on green seaming wickets. So when Pakistan and Ireland showed up at Kingston, a fresh green wicket was prepared for them. The trio of Younis, Yousuf and Inzi were again playing garbage. They just didnt know what was happening and for them it was as if Akram and Waqar were bowling. The millitary medium pacer, Andre Botha made such a mockey of this team that he ended the match with 8 overs, 5 runs, 2 wickets and 4 maidens. Boyd Rankin also took 3 wickets.

Pakistan barely scored 130ish runs. When they came out to defend it, the body language was so bad that even though Ireland's batting also sucked they just allowed Nial Obrien to play a match winning knock.

This is why I always disliked Inzi, Yousuf and Younus. These guys were garbage in ICC events.
Click to expand...

I think not having Afridi for this game (due to suspension or something) also contributed. These are the games where typically Afridi would come and lump the medium pacers for quickfire 25-30 and then bowl rockets to their middle order/tail.

I reckon for all of Pak's faults if Afridi had been playing instead of Azhar mahmood, Pak would have just gotten over the line
 
Bangladesh being a test playing nation wasn’t a bigger shock beating India as BD did beat India at home once before that, and beaten ATG Australia side in Cardiff 2005. The bigger shock for me was how the part timers (at the time), associate nation like Ireland beating Pakistan which had a very good strong side. definitely Pakistan missed a chance to go far in 2007 cwc. Especially with India being k’od by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka early.
 
For India, there were serious issues between Chappell and some senior players at the time.

Even disregarding that , while we had started a ruthless streak in ODIs under Chappell , it was only in Indian/Pakistani conditions.

On the slower Caribbean wickets , the team had struggled even in the previous 2006 tour

Chappell and Dravid did well to experiment but they went too far in that and ended up with an unsettled lineup which kept changing from series to series - Uthappa, Pathan, SRT, Ganguly, Sehwag and Dravid himself were batting at different positions every other match in the lead up to the World Cup.
 
Mas-LFC said:
Bangladesh being a test playing nation wasn’t a bigger shock beating India as BD did beat India at home once before that, and beaten ATG Australia side in Cardiff 2005. The bigger shock for me was how the part timers (at the time), associate nation like Ireland beating Pakistan which had a very good strong side. definitely Pakistan missed a chance to go far in 2007 cwc. Especially with India being k’od by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka early.
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Agree with this assessment.

BD-India pitch was slow and low. It suited BD bowlers.

Young Tamim Iqbal played an attacking 50 and it took the game away from India.

 
For how many years more Bangladeshi fans will sell this one off fluke victory?

Two years from now, it will be 20 years to that tournament.

The fact remains that after so many years they are still minnows of cricket and absolutely no one takes them seriously. To top it off when they have such rude fans it only makes that team even more unlikable.

Teams like Afghanistan have left them for dead here after started playing cricket much later.

But but Tamim debut innings...but but 2007 WC

:shakib
 
Horrible WC tournament for both teams

Had expectations from team but after seeing them play I couldn't not believe it

It was tough one for us
 
Rajdeep said:
For how many years more Bangladeshi fans will sell this one off fluke victory?

Two years from now, it will be 20 years to that tournament.

The fact remains that after so many years they are still minnows of cricket and absolutely no one takes them seriously. To top it off when they have such rude fans it only makes that team even more unlikable.

Teams like Afghanistan have left them for dead here after started playing cricket much later.

But but Tamim debut innings...but but 2007 WC

:shakib
Click to expand...

Fun fact..

Bangladesh haven't won a since ICC event game against India since that game.

Played 11... Lost 11..

A streak no Indian cares about ..but the one that still exists. :qdkcheeky
 
Mesozoic said:
Fun fact..

Bangladesh haven't won a since ICC event game against India since that game.

Played 11... Lost 11..

A streak no Indian cares about ..but the one that still exists. :qdkcheeky
Click to expand...
It terms of H2H hierarchy in Asia it is Pak > India > BD :inti
 
Farhan The Man said:
This picture epitomizes WC 2007.

Right after ireland match. Less than an hour after woolmer's demise, apparently "alone" in bathroom.

pak fellas eating burgers. Surrounded by cops and news reporters. Their shifty, forlorn gazes tell a story.

Click to expand...
Devils advocate can argue that they had it after having an anxiety / stress related hunger 😀
 
Mesozoic said:
Fun fact..

Bangladesh haven't won a since ICC event game against India since that game.

Played 11... Lost 11..

A streak no Indian cares about ..but the one that still exists. :qdkcheeky
Click to expand...
Forget about caring...I got to know it first time today.

For me BD cricket is all about Mushy's early celebration, then failing to score 2 runs in 3 balls and then tweeting after West Indies knocked us out in semi finals saying 'Ha ha...happiness is this, now I can sleep better'. That was the defining moment in cricket for me like how moon landing was a defining moment for mankind.

:uakmal
 
Mesozoic said:
Fun fact..

Bangladesh haven't won a since ICC event game against India since that game.

Played 11... Lost 11..

A streak no Indian cares about ..but the one that still exists. :qdkcheeky
Click to expand...
True this. No Ind fan cares about this. Heck , I didnt even know it was a streak until you mentioned it. Just shows how poor Ban have been despite the cricketing resources they have. I firmly believe Ireland and Nepal will overtake them sooner than later. Even the USA, which recently beat Ban in a 3 match T20 series in 2024
 
Nothing Pakistan side. Very slow batting lineup including a mostly finished Inzi in the middle order.

Bowling also was rubbish without Akhtar.

There was a 9 over period in the chase against Windies where Inzi and MoYo scored only 13 runs. Just rubbish.

And no matter what you say about that pitch, there was no excuse for that loss against Ireland.
 
That 2007 India team was really bad. Like Pakistan of 2025. Packed with ageing seniors who were past their prime and youngsters without discipline & dedication like Sehwag / Yuvraj. On top u had a divisive manager Greg Chappel witha toxic relationship withe senior pros. It was like Pakistan dressing room

The warning signs were there when India lost abdly to West Indies in a bilateral DOI series, then knocked out in 1st round of CT 2006 in India, then whitewashed by South Africa in ODI series. But India played a ODIs eries against a weakened Sri Lanka just before the WC and won - everything was forgotten

But the defeat against Bangladesh again exposed the team's fragilities and it was all over

In hindsight it was blessing in disguise. There was a proper surgery after the debacle - many seniors got gently nudged out of the team and Dhoni got appointed a new white ball captain. That ushered in a new era of Indian cricket that led to 2011 ODI WC triumph
 
Farhan The Man said:
This picture epitomizes WC 2007.

Right after ireland match. Less than an hour after woolmer's demise, apparently "alone" in bathroom.

pak fellas eating burgers. Surrounded by cops and news reporters. Their shifty, forlorn gazes tell a story.

Click to expand...
Call me crazy, but 07 WC was in WI - so them burger king burgers ain't Halal, LOL! These are the players that shows how passionate they are about being muslim on/off field ...

Back to topic - it's an anamoly in sport. As you can see from the H2H records, it does not happen often. There was a time when SA got knocked out by Holland - infact in the same WC, BD defeated SA too with legens like Kallis in the team. Or when IRE knocked out ENG. But if they play 10 matches, 1-2 anamoly will always happen. It's sport.

However, you also have to look a bit into pakistan and india's locker room. Coach and players were not getting along, also PAK's coach's demise, etc. Those does play a roll no matter what.
 
Because BD played well,It worked well for India as we ended up winning the 2007 T20..because seniors decided to step down from the format.

Also for BD fans it was 2007, guys hopefully you have at least something more to cherish.
 
pratiktc said:
I think not having Afridi for this game (due to suspension or something) also contributed. These are the games where typically Afridi would come and lump the medium pacers for quickfire 25-30 and then bowl rockets to their middle order/tail.

I reckon for all of Pak's faults if Afridi had been playing instead of Azhar mahmood, Pak would have just gotten over the line
Click to expand...
naa, that track was more of a medium pacer attack. So Afridi playing would not had made a difference
 
JaDed said:
Because BD played well,It worked well for India as we ended up winning the 2007 T20..because seniors decided to step down from the format.

Also for BD fans it was 2007, guys hopefully you have at least something more to cherish.
Click to expand...
I think 2007-2015 era was golden for Bangladesh. Tamim, Shakib, Mashrafe, Mahamdullah, Mushfiqur all at their peak.

I feel they will do well 4-5 years from now. They have some talented youngsters who can mature by then.

However so far their board has been run ok unlike PCB or Srilanka and don’t have the issues of Afghanistan. Not sure current situation.
 
Rajdeep said:
For how many years more Bangladeshi fans will sell this one off fluke victory?

Two years from now, it will be 20 years to that tournament.

The fact remains that after so many years they are still minnows of cricket and absolutely no one takes them seriously. To top it off when they have such rude fans it only makes that team even more unlikable.

Teams like Afghanistan have left them for dead here after started playing cricket much later.

But but Tamim debut innings...but but 2007 WC

:shakib
Click to expand...
Beating India in a wc is their greatest cricketing achievement til date, I am afraid we will be hearing about this for many more years to come.
 
Farhan The Man said:
This picture epitomizes WC 2007.

Right after ireland match. Less than an hour after woolmer's demise, apparently "alone" in bathroom.

pak fellas eating burgers. Surrounded by cops and news reporters. Their shifty, forlorn gazes tell a story.

Click to expand...
Match har gaye, coach mar gaya, aab banda khana bhi na khaye? Ye kaisi zyadti hai bhai?
 
Zimbabwe beat Australia in 1983 world cup. BD beat Pakistan in 1999. Kenya beat Windies in 2003. Ireland beat pakistan in 2007. BD beat india in 2007. Ireland beat England in 2011. These are some of the upsets. It is not outlandish to see a poor te.beating a top team in an one off encounter
 
Razzak , Afridi ( initially ) , Akhtar , Asif were missing. The XI Bob had made for the WC was disturbed. That was the reason for Pakistan losing.

If Asif and Akhtar were playing , Ireland would not have got 100 on the pitch
 
I'll tell y'all what happened in the India BD game in 2007. I saw it on live TV.

What happened, y'all, is that Tamim Iqbal happened, is what happened.

At 192 ao, I was still dead confident we would beat BD.

Then along comes this 17-18 year old kid, he's opening! Zaheer Khan runs in and I'm anticipating a wicket in the first over.

Tamim proceeds to take India's bowlers apart.

That's what happened. That's all that happened.

After him (12-13 overs), BD knew they were good enough to win it. I cannot emphasize the psychological impact of that innings, on India's bowlers and the BD team.

It made me a lifelong fan of Tamim. That kid would have been at least as good/ recognised as Sehwag if he had played for any other team. I rate him above any BD player I've ever seen, except maybe Shakib.
 
To add to the above, Tamim Iqbal in that 2007 game was my second "how can he slap'" moment as an Indian fan, in the same ballpark, but of course not the same level, as Javed Miandad's last ball six at Sharjah.

That game too I saw live. :((
 
India was the strongest in the group. So losing to BD need not have been the end of the road for India. India barely 20 days backs had beaten Srilanka comprehensively in a ODI series. So India was expected to win the match against Lanka. Big guns like Sachin, MSD went for ducks. Yuvi run out.
 
Cryin Out Loud said:
I'll tell y'all what happened in the India BD game in 2007. I saw it on live TV.

What happened, y'all, is that Tamim Iqbal happened, is what happened.

At 192 ao, I was still dead confident we would beat BD.

Then along comes this 17-18 year old kid, he's opening! Zaheer Khan runs in and I'm anticipating a wicket in the first over.

Tamim proceeds to take India's bowlers apart.

That's what happened. That's all that happened.

After him (12-13 overs), BD knew they were good enough to win it. I cannot emphasize the psychological impact of that innings, on India's bowlers and the BD team.

It made me a lifelong fan of Tamim. That kid would have been at least as good/ recognised as Sehwag if he had played for any other team. I rate him above any BD player I've ever seen, except maybe Shakib.
Click to expand...

Tamim Iqbal, is still the best opener BD ever produced. Its unfortunate how the previous coach, captain under previous dictators regime conspired to leave him out of 2023CWC and in consequence him leaving international cricket few years too soon.
 
Mas-LFC said:
Tamim Iqbal, is still the best opener BD ever produced. Its unfortunate how the previous coach, captain under previous dictators regime conspired to leave him out of 2023CWC and in consequence him leaving international cricket few years too soon.
Click to expand...

I would rate him as the best batsman that BD has ever produced.

He was geniuine international class.

The only BD player I've been wary of; not even Shakib or Mushy bothered me.

Plus (as an outside observer, so could have misjudged) I found him very likeable too.
 
deltexas said:
True this. No Ind fan cares about this. Heck , I didnt even know it was a streak until you mentioned it. Just shows how poor Ban have been despite the cricketing resources they have. I firmly believe Ireland and Nepal will overtake them sooner than later. Even the USA, which recently beat Ban in a 3 match T20 series in 2024
Click to expand...
Ireland - Maybe

But Nepal? No way!
 
Oh man.. nostalgia..I was in Pakistan with my dad as a teenager during this WC start as a tourist in 2007.
This below advertisement used to run on cable tv in our hotel. When India lost I was stunned and dejected. Also since I was in Pakistan did not want to go out at all with the fear of being mocked. Then Pakistan obliged by losing to Ireland and made my life easy. Me and other Pakistani guy visiting Lahore from Islamabad in the hotel literally cried, and then laughed at our situation... lol those were the days.

Thank you Pakistan for once..

 
Cryin Out Loud said:
I would rate him as the best batsman that BD has ever produced.

He was geniuine international class.

The only BD player I've been wary of; not even Shakib or Mushy bothered me.

Plus (as an outside observer, so could have misjudged) I found him very likeable too.
Click to expand...
Shakib is all rounders , Tanim is pure batter.
 
Local.Dada said:
I think 2007-2015 era was golden for Bangladesh. Tamim, Shakib, Mashrafe, Mahamdullah, Mushfiqur all at their peak.

I feel they will do well 4-5 years from now. They have some talented youngsters who can mature by then.
Click to expand...

If I had a taka for everytime I heard this, I'll earn enough to refund the ICC for all the money they have wasted on hapless Bangladesh over the years.
 
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