India have the last laugh in a pulsating thriller!

Tags: IND v PAK 4th Match at Dambulla - Jun 19, 2010, Asia Cup - 2010, India, Pakistan

Published on: Jun 19, 2010

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

Pakistan have won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the 4th Match of the Asia Cup in Dambulla.

India won by 3 wickets with just one ball to spare. Wow what a match it was, went right till the wire and Harbhajan and India had the last laugh! Players from both sides got charged up with lots of words being exchanged to make it a lively contest. Gambhir was the architect of this win while Raina and Harbhajan provided the crucial knock out punches. Pakistan with this defeat are out of the tournament!

Pakistan Innings

Indian bowlers did quite a splendid job in bowling out Pakistan for 267 despite searching for wickets in the initial stages of the innings on what looked like a flat batting track. Pakistan had a solid start with 71 on the board before they lost their first wicket through Imran Farhat in only the 17th over. The Indian bowlers were kept at bay after that with Shoaib Malik forging a similar partnership with Salman Butt to lay a strong foundation at 144 for 2 in 29 overs. Out of nowhere though, the Indian bowling and fielding picked up to trigger a panic of sorts in the Pakistani middle order. And the end result was that Pakistan couldn't finish where they wanted to be, perhaps a total of 300 plus was gone begging.

Nevertheless, Pak would take the 267 as they were in a really bad state at 227 for 7 with only Kamran Akmal surviving amongst the recognized batsmen. The Wicket Keeper batsman hit 51 from 41 balls with 2 fours and 3 crucial sixes to rescue Pakistan from a crisis. The foundation was earlier laid by a 85-ball 74 from Salman Butt. He was well supported by Imran Farhat (25) and Shoaib Malik (39). India managed to pull off wickets at regular intervals just when Pakistan was looking to step up the accelerator.

Praveen Kumar bowled well for India taking three wickets including that of a dangerous Shahid Afridi who was plumb infront after missing a clever slower one. While the experienced Zaheer and Harbhajan took a couple of wickets each, it was the young Ravindra Jadeja who was instrumental in stifling the run flow with his 10-0-43-1. Jadeja also came up with a brilliant run out of Salman Butt off his own bowling.

Toss and Teams

Pakistan have won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the 4th Match of the Asia Cup in Dambulla. There is a big change in the Pakistani team with match winning seamer Mohammad Asif making way for off spinner Saeed Ajmal. There is one more change with Imran Farhat coming in for Shahzaib Hasan. Its important for Pak to win this match having lost against Sri Lanka in the tournament opener.

India, their arch-rivals have remained unchanged as far as the team composition goes.

India : Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra

Pakistan : Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Umar Amin, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (C), Kamran Akmal (WK), Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Aamer

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