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India skipper Virat Kohli might call it just another game to calm the nerves of his players ahead of Sunday's blockbuster meeting between India and Pakistan at the World Cup, but everyone knows that a clash between the arch-rivals on the cricket field is nothing short of a carnival.
Emotions run high, players look to seize the moment and make a statement and even the fans want boasting rights till the two teams face-off next time.
And who better to speak on what it means to take on Pakistan in a World Cup game than Sachin Tendulkar.
In fact, apart from winning the coveted trophy in 2011, the little master rates the 2003 game against Pakistan in Centurion as one of his favourite memories from playing in six World Cups for India.
This in itself speaks volumes of what an India-Pakistan encounter means, not just to the fans, but also for the 22 bravehearts fighting it out in the middle.
Not many will forget the role Tendulkar played in that game when he hit a 75-ball 98 to set the ball rolling. Chasing 274 in a World Cup game against an opposition like Pakistan was never going to be easy, but the way Tendulkar started -- smashing Wasim Akram to the covers boundary off the third ball of the first over -- it was enough to puncture the morale of the opposition bowlers.
"The entire country was celebrating and I still remember talking to a number of friends on the phone and all of them making me hear how the firecrackers were bursting. Everyone was celebrating, dancing, jumping... The entire nation was celebrating," he reminisced.
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