India-Pakistan supporters test the stamina of stewards to the full

As rain-sodden, one-sided dead rubbers go, this was always likely to be one of the livelier examples. But then India versus Pakistan is a rivalry like no other, arguably the most culturally charged, militarily inflamed, population-heavy regular sporting rivalry in the sporting world. As India beat Pakistan by eight wickets at an alternately drenched and sun-kissed Edgbaston there were 10 arrests after one early morning flare-up and later a rather menacing knot of mixed India and Pakistan supporters in the Eric Hollies stand during an afternoon that tested the stamina of the stewards to the full.

Beyond this, the last Group B match of the final edition of the International Cricket Council’s third favourite limited overs competition – now just five matches from its scheduled end and staggering around England with its hand to its chest, ketchup squirting out between its clenched fingers – was a fascinating occasion in its own right. Sell-out crowds are rare at any neutral-venue match, but Edgbaston was already groaning at its corrugated edges an hour before the start of play, with the streets around the ground a mismatched swirl of Indian tricolour and Pakistani green. There was even something rather cheerfully daring about the sight of mixed piles of Indo‑Pak flags and assorted team-coloured tat lumped together on the grass verges by the usual jobbing street venders, presented to the passing traffic like a vision of harmony-by-replica-souvenir.

If only by virtue of its sheer concerted noise, not to mention its uniquely visceral edge, this particular dead rubber will surely rank among the more memorable sporting events to take place in England this summer. The first frenzied cheers of a breezy morning inside Edgbaston’s low-slung lightweight bowl arrived three minutes into the day’s play as Nasir Jamshed was given out lbw to Umesh Yadav’s first ball. The second bout of frenzied cheering of the morning came a minute later as the successful appeal was overturned on appeal. It was just that sort of day, the ground remaining unceasingly loud throughout, and retaining also the cordial, celebratory feel of a coming-together as much as a collision.

Unsurprisingly, given the incoming traffic from London, the midlands and the north, this was also an Asian occasion with a distinct and varied British tang. During the extended rain delay a large knot of British Pakistanis and British Indians in the Eric Hollies stand staged a mass sing-along to, among other things, Yeh Dosti from the classic Hindi film Sholay, as well as (but we shall gloss over this) the collected hits of Bruno Mars.

It is of course impossible to ignore the layers of historical intrigue involved in England staging a cricket match between these two countries. Modern Pakistan was effectively created out of an act of the British parliament, while the manner and execution of the partition of India remains a historical sore. India and Pakistan have gone to war four times in the 56 years since, and as recently as January there were skirmishes on the border of Kashmir. There is, it seems safe to say, a little more in the background of these contests than the usual banter.

And yet, at Edgbaston there was still banter – the miracle of banter – as Indian supporters cheered a passing Pakistani conga and the revelry in the noisiest part of the ground was led by an intriguing Anglo-Pak stag-do mash-up of Pakistan ultras dressed as convicts, Batmen and a green-wigged Mr T. A Yuvraj Singh impersonator dressed in full kit and bearing an eerie weak-chinned similarity was mobbed by fans of both teams.

And as the rain fell there was above all a sense of a familiar shared Britishness of beer and soggy sandwiches. Later, when the sun came out in mid-afternoon the same fans were on their feet in a conjoined Indo-Pak Mexican wave. It also brought some cricket with it.

In the middle of this culturally urgent collision there was a rain-affected group match to be played. Unfortunately for Pakistan the excitement of the occasion did nothing to disguise frailty of their top order. Wickets fell regularly throughout their shortened innings, accompanied around the stands by fireworks, leaping flames and shrill IPL-style cheers.

Mainly it was the spinners – the subtle variations of the loping, nerdish Ravichandran Ashwin Ashwin combined with the glamorous occasional turn of the charismatic Ravindra Jadeja – who applied the strangle. The delivery from Ashwin that looped and spun in to bowl Wahab Riaz and make the score 140 for seven was a moment of genuine quality.

An adjusted target of 165 never looked enough – even before India’s openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan set off in pursuit of it with a relish that seemed entirely in keeping with the occasion.