India take on Pakistan in an eagerly awaited clash Super 12 clash of the T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. Though there is rain threat around the match, a reduced game is very much on the cards.
India have dominated Pakistan in World Cups, with a combined 12-1 record across the ODI and T20 showpiece events.
India have won all seven of their ODI World Cup games and lead 5-1 in T20 World Cup.
However, Pakistan thrashed India by 10 wickets last year to record their maiden win over the arch-rivals in any World Cup.
The Indo-Pak clashes in the Twenty20 World Cup have been largely lopsided barring the two contests in the inaugural edition in South Africa in 2007.
The Group D match in 2007 ended in a tie, with India emerging winners via bowl out in Durban.
The two teams clashed again in an epic final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg in which India triumphed by five runs despite Misbah-ul-Haq's heroics.
The next four T20 World Cup duels have been one-sided.
India outplayed Pakistan by eight wickets in the 2012 edition in Sri Lanka.
They won by seven wickets in 2014 in Dhaka, while M S Dhoni's men scored a six-wicke victory in a Super 10 encounter at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2016.
Babar Azam's Pakistan ended the jinx with an emphatic 10-wicket win over Virat Kohli's men in a Super 12 match in Dubai last year.
India's Irfan Pathan (2007 final), Kohli (2012 & 2016) and Amit Mishra (2014) have won player-of-the-match awards in the marquee clash, while Mohammad Asif (2007) and Shaheen Afridi (2021) have bagged the honours for Pakistan.
India's total of 157/5 in the 2007 final is the highest while Pakistan's 118/5 in 18 overs in 2016 is the lowest. The team chasing has emerged victorious on four occasions. Pakistan's 10-wicket win last year is the biggest margin in a chase.
It's to be noted that Dhoni was the captain on all five occasions in which India triumphed over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup.
Overall India have lost three T20Is to Pakistan - while winning seven, with one ending in a tie. However, However, Pakistan enjoy a superior head-to-head record over India across all three formats. They have won 88 games as opposed to India's 71 in 202 games.
They have come out on top in 12 Tests as compared to India's nine with 38 ending in draws. Pakistan lead India 73-55 in one-dayers with four matches ending in ties.
But, India have dealt with the pressure better in World Cups as their dominance demonstrates, starting with the 1992 ODI World Cup in Australia.
There has been only instance in which an Indo-Pak T20 World Cup clash was hit by rain. The Men in Blue won by six wickets in a match reduced to 18-overs-a-side in the 2016 edition. It's interesting that no Indo-Pak World Cup match has been abandoned so far.