Historic T20 win for Pak
Bangalore: Bangalore: Pakistan's five year wait for a cricket match against India climaxed on a scintillating high when they posted their first ever T20 win over the arch-rival before a packed M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday.
The cracker of a win was made possible by man of the match Mohammad Hafeez, who led from the front with a swashbuckling 61, and Shoaib Malik, who remained unbeaten on 57. With a brilliant106-run stand, they helped Pakistan beat India by 5 wickets after earlier restricting Indian 133 for the loss of nine wickets.
Malik hit a six off the fourth ball of the final over to win the low-scoring thriller for the visitors with two balls to spare. Debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke through the Pakistan top order with his triple strike to give India a perfect start and reduce Pakistan to 12/3 in three overs.
Earlier, the Indian batting suffered a sensational collapse as they were restricted for a paltry 133 for nine against Pakistan, in the first Twenty20 International series here on Tuesday.
Put into bat, Indian openers Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir made a solid start putting on 77 for the first wicket but everything went haywire from then on as they lost nine wickets for an addition of 47 runs.
Such was the plight of Indian batting that save Gambhir who scored 43 and Rahane who smashed 42 off 31 balls, all the other frontline batsmen failed miserably. Only Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina managed double-figure scores with contributions of 10 runs each.
While Pakistan bowlers led by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal did a splendid job in the back 10, the Indian batsmen showed lack of application and their running between the wickets was also pretty poor.
Umar Gul was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers grabbing three for 21 after conceding 13 in his first over while Ajmal chipped in with two for 25 keeping things under check during middle overs.
However, India had started on a positive note with Rahane taking on tallest international cricketer Mohammed Irfan (7 feet 1 inch) and Sohail Tanveer with consumate ease. Gambhir was a bit scratchy at the other end as he found it difficult to get going.
The shot of the Indian innings was Rahane's six over extra cover off Ajmal's delivery. After settling down, Gambhir also hit Gul for a six over mid-wicket.
It was Shahid Afridi who gave Pakistan the first breakthrough when Rahane tried to repeat the lofted shot over extra cover only to be holed out by Umar Akmal at long-on. India's slide started after this first wicket.
SCORECARD
India innings: Gautam Gambhir run out (Tanvir/Akmal) 43, Ajinkya Rahane c Umar Akmal b Afridi 42, Virat Kohli c Akmal b Irfan 9, Yuvraj Singh c Umar Akmal b Gul 10, Mahendra Singh Dhoni b Ajmal, Suresh Raina b Ajmal 10, Rohit Sharma run out (Shoaib Malik) 2, Ravindra Jadeja c Akmal b Gul 2, Bhuvneswar Kumar not out 6, Ishant Sharma b Gul 0, Ashok Dinda not out 3
Extras: (LB-2, W-3) 5
Total: (for nine wickets in 20 overs) 133
Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-90, 3-103, 4-108, 5-115, 6-122, 7-123, 8-124, 9-124
Bowling: Irfan 4-0-25-1, Tanvir 4-0-22-0, Gul 3-0-21-3, Ajmal 4-0-25-2, Afridi 3-0-26-1, Hafeez 2-0-12-0.
Pakistan: Nasir Jamshed b Kumar 2, Ahmed Shehzad c Dhoni b Kumar 5, Mohammad Hafeez c Kumar b Sharma 61, Umar Akmal b Kumar 0 Shoaib Malik not out 57, Kamran Akmal c Sharma b Dinda 1, Shahid Afridi not out 3
Extras: (LB-1, W-3, NB-1) 5
Total: (for 5 wickets in 19.4 overs) 134
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-11, 3-12, 4-118, 5-123
Bowling: Kumar 4-0-9-3, Dinda 4-0-26-1, Sharma 4-0-23-1, Kohli 2-0-21-0, Yuvraj 3-0-25-0, Jadeja 2.4-0-29-0.
Man of the match: Mohammad Hafeez
News Posted: 26 December, 2012
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