A 106-run fourth-wicket partnership between captain Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik helped Pakistan overcame a terrible start to pull off a thrilling last-over win the first Twenty20 International against India by five wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore yesterday. It was a match of contrasting innings from Pakistan and India, as the hosts earlier frittered away an excellent start to be restricted to a sub-par total.
Needing 34 to win from the last five overs, the pair took eleven off Ishant Sharma’s sixteenth over and then eight more off Ashok Dinda in the next over. But Hafeez was out off the first ball of the eighteenth over, caught for a 44-ball 61 off Ishant Sharma, who bowled an excellent over to give away only two runs. That over set the cat among Pakistan’s pigeons as Kamran Akmal was snapped up at third man off Dinda in the penultimate over, at the end of which Pakistan needed 10 runs to win.
Three runs came off the first three balls of the final over bowled by Ravindu Jadeja as Shahid Afridi and Malik scrambled between the wickets. Off the fourth ball Malik connected with a heave to deposit the ball clear of the straight boundary for a six, in the process winning the match for Pakistan and finishing unbeaten on a 50-ball 57.
Chasing a modest 134 to win, Pakistan got off to the worst of starts as rookie India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar extracted mesmerising movement from a pitch tinged with green to leave Pakistan wobbling on 12 for three.
Moving the ball both ways, Kumar bowled opener Nasir Jamshed off the last ball of the first over with one that jagged back sharply into the left-hander. An outswinger in the next over accounted for the right-handed Ahmed Shehzad who nicked the ball to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Off the last ball of the same over, Kumar produced a gigantic inswinger to sneak between the defences of Umar Akmal.
Kumar bowled an exceptional spell of three for nine from his four overs, but once he finished his quota at the start of the innings, Hafeez and Malik took full toll on the other Indian bowlers.
Hafeez started cautiously but soon found his groove, targeting the India spinners on the unresponsive pitch. The assault started from the eleventh over as the pair punished India’s part-time bowlers Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Ravindu Jadeja. At the end of the fifteenth over which produced 16 runs courtesy of a six each by Malik and Hafeez, Pakistan had reached 99 for three and the game was all but in the bag.
Earlier, India wasted an excellent start by openers Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane, who took them to 77 for the first wicket. Rahane fell in the eleventh over for a 31-ball 42 when he was caught by Umar Gul at deep extra cover off Afridi.
It was Gambhir’s dismissal, trying an ill-advised second run to be found short of the crease in the thirteenth over, which started the disintegration. The feared middle order trio of Kohli, Singh and captain Dhoni were all dismissed through a combination of tight bowling and rash shots. Kohli was caught behind off the third consecutive wild swing in the fifteenth over by newcomer Mohammad Irfan. Ajmal found just enough turn to sneak past Dhoni’s flailing bat and disturb the off bail while Yuvraj tried to hit a slower off-cutter from Gul out of the park but only mistimed it to deep midwicket. Yuvraj’s wicket left India at 115 for five in the 17th over, and a score nearing 150 was still possible.
But India then twice lost a pair of wickets in successive deliveries �” Suresh Raina’s and Rohit Sharma’s in the eighteenth over by Ajmal, and Jadeja’s and Sharma’s in the 19th by Gul — to be left floundering at 124 for nine. Tailenders Kumar and Dinda then took nine off the last ten deliveries to take India to 133 for nine.
Source: The Daily Star
