Jittery Pakistan handed big loss by India
Umar Akmal drops Virat Kohli. -Photo by AFP
COLOMBO: Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh starred as India thrashed arch-rivals Pakistan by eight wickets Sunday to stay alive in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.
India, who would have been knocked out of the tournament had they lost, skittled Pakistan for 128 on a slow pitch and then surpassed the modest target in 17 overs, thanks largely to Kohli’s unbeaten 78 off 61 balls.
A sell-out crowd of 35,000 at Colombo’s Premadasa stadium, including Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, saw India continue their stranglehold on Pakistan in major world meets.
Pakistan have never beaten India in either the 50-over World Cup or the World Twenty20, in which they contested a thrilling final in 2007.
Sunday’s match was only the third Twenty20 international between the two countries and the result set up a thrilling shoot-out for the two semi-final berths from group two.
Australia lead the group with two wins, India and Pakistan have one each, while South Africa have lost both matches so far.
The last round of group matches will be played on Tuesday with Australia taking on Pakistan and India playing South Africa.
India lost Gautam Gambhir off the second ball of the innings, offering a tame return catch to 20-year-old left-arm spinner Raza Hasan, but Kohli and Virender Sehwag denied Pakistan another immediate break.
The pair put on 74 for the second wicket, with Sehwag making 29 before he holed out in the deep off Shahid Afridi.
Singh, who is making his comeback from cancer treatment, claimed two wickets and threw a direct-hit run-out in Pakistan’s innings. He then scored 19 not out in an unbroken third wicket stand of 54 with Kohli to carry India home.
The impressive win was set up by the bowlers as seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji claimed three wickets and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took two to leave Pakistan in tatters after they elected to bat.
Shoaib Malik top-scored with 28, but only one other batsman managed to touch 20 in the face of steady bowling by the Indians.
The match began on a scintillating note as the first two overs produced 13 runs each, besides a dropped catch in the slips by Sehwag and the wicket of Imran Nazir.
India hit back to grab four more wickets in the next nine overs, two of them in successive overs by Yuvraj, to reduce Pakistan to 59-5 by the 10th over.
Big-hitter Afridi, who was promoted to number three, had made 14 when he lofted Balaji to deep mid-wicket where Suresh Raina was perfectly positioned to take the skier.
Yuvraj, who was treated for a rare germ-cell cancer between his lungs earlier this year before returning to action at the World Twenty20, ran out Yasir Arafat with a direct throw.
i think Pakistanis should have their own team in IPL.That will be real fun.all tickets will be sold out and probabaly help in getting the relationships better between the two countries.
The civility of these comments baffles me. I cant recount any comments on any article from any subcontinent-based publication being civil in recent time.
As an Indian, I have followed the decade-old rise of the Indian team from back when our tail used to start at one-down. While the quality of cricketers has gone up significantly since back then, I think the big difference is the mental strength, the winners attitude – even if you’re not a winner. The beginning of this was during Ganguly’s time. Dhoni today can afford to take bold decisions, and can afford to be wrong. Not so for any Pakistani captain of recent times.
A large part of this game is mental. When Akram used to come in to bowl, or Saqlain used to warm up, or Sohail/Anwar used to take guard opening, you knew that this was a winning team – whether they won or not was a different point. Not so anymore.
In the interest of thrilling cricket encounters, lets hope that the Pakistani team gets their act together soon. Too much talent that believes that it cant win. In the interest of the Indian team, I hope that the Pakistanis dont figure out that they actually *do* have a winning team anytime soon. And for the record, I believe that they do.
what disgraceful performance. Tactically very poor. Why decide to bat when batting second has been proven to be earlier. Also when Pakistan decided to bat first they were trying to post 180 runs when only 148 would have been sufficient. The batters were out to ordinary bowling. Pak batters basically are very poor in assessing the conditions and the opposition strength and are not able to de die what is required to win a game, particularly against India. This is due to lack of education.feel sorry for Pakistan bowlers, in any other side they would win the tournament. Finally what great player Kholi is ….please learn from him.
Afridi is a spent force and he is not doing justice with bat or ball.Pakistan selection must look for fresh faces and groom youngters
In my opinion Pakistan was a good bowling unit in the past & not any more . Saeed Ajmal is an exception but he too got exposed in match against India & kohli took him to cleaners ! After the W Cup is over the PCB should do some introspection & only select brilliant cricketers on merit otherwise the cricket in pakistan will perish. I mean the players have already lost confidence amongst their fans and are looked upon as match fixers! They should play for the pride of the nation and money and fame will follow them.
Pakistan team was relying on Mr. Luck but it did not work this time as it did with South Africa. No batting plan and switching places during crucial match. Razaaq and Asad Shafiq should have been picked in place of Yasir Arfaat and Kamran Akmal and give gloves to Umar Akmal.
Indian Team should be as follows.
Opening
1) Robin uthappa Batsman
2) Sehwag Batsman (Spinner) Part time
3) Kholi Batsman
4) Yuvraj Batsman (Spinner) Part time
5) Dhoni Batsman
6) Raina Batsman
7) Yousuf Pathan Batsman (Spinner) Part time
8) Ashwin (Baller)
9) Ishanth sharma (Baller)
10) Zaheer Khan (Baller)
11) Irfan Pathan (Baller)
But unfortunately Selector of indian team is Srikanth, and he plays politics whom he wants he selects
He dint give chance to robin who is a good hitter
we dont need class player like Gautham and Rohit Both are not good to play T20
we need Hitter like robin and yousuf.
The indian selector Srikant is useless and he selects those who play for IPL for chennai supers
thank god he is been remove from selector post. god is Great
pakistan team is tlented and good fielders may be they must give chance to Abdul razzak he is all rounder and they need partnership am sure they can win this title if they play as team..
agreed. Robin uthappa Batsman also secondary keeper.
But we need a real quick bowler dude
You are outdated….Srikanth is no more the Indian selector
IF AUSTRALIA WIN – Aussies are through with maximum points, India will join them if they win (by any margin). If South Africa beat India then SA, India and Pakistan will all be on two points and it goes down to net run rate.
IF PAKISTAN WIN – Australia and Pakistan will both be on four points, and South Africa are eliminated. If South Africa beat India then Australia and Pakistan go through. But if India beat South Africa, then Australia, Pakistan and India will all be on four points and the top two will go through on net run rate.
Thanks for the analysis. I hope Hafeez calculated the same, coz now i think who ever wins, they must win with big margin…
The entire Pakistani management failed math/statistics. All teams bating first are loosing and they opted to bat first. It is due to the conditions, bat first team trying to score big loose wickets and the chasing teams are not under pressure due to a small target in sight.
Can I be hired to hep the team in case of winning the toss?
You certainly have eye on statistics..
We will continue to get these results because of political interference in the game at the highest level. Cricket should be freed from greedy politicians
I remember how in 90′s Pakistan used to dominate India in cricket. If the match was in Pakistan then the chances for India used to be very thin. But with Saurabh Ganguli taking over as captain, things changed and we became even. After Dhoni, it changed even more and now Pakistan is dominated by India.
Very true. I think it has something to do with the quality of the players too. India in last 10-12 years has been blessed with some very quality players on the other hand our cricket standard has been deteriorating since last 10-12 years. The last time I saw Pakistan as a dominating and quality team was back in WC 1999.
As a Indian, we miss, Imran Khan, javed Miandad, Abdul qadir, Wasim Akram & Sayeed Anwar..We hope to see such type of standard again in Pak team, and then we can really enjoy..India Pakistan match…………..
Where is Razzaq?
I can’t understand the person in charge who decides on the final 11.
Unbelievable they are leaving out their best batting allrounder. Razzaq has had great impact in english counties both with bat and ball.
Is it again something personal/politics that a player of his calibre is kept out?
Congrats to Team India for putting in a clinical performance. For Team Pakistan, it’s pretty much back to the drawing board. Firstly they need to pick team according to the pitch conditions. Secondly drop marginal players and bring in specialists. Thirdly our batsmanship leaves a lot to be desired. What are Messrs. Javed Miandad and Dav Whatmore doing? Our batsman display poor technique, application and temperament, which needs to be addressed and rectified. It’s proper batting at the end of the day that wins matches and not the wild slogs. Fourthly our fielding is going nowhere, with the umpteen dropped catches and misfields. Kamran Akmal needs to get back to wicketkeeping lessons, presumably from the great Wasim Bari, Moin Khan or Rashid Latif. Lastly get a therapist for improving players mental fitness and destressing before big/crunch games. If they select team on merit and not based on somebody’s recommendation, parchi or relation then may be we can get over this stigma that haunts us especially in India/Pakistan matches. But all is not lost, regroup and come back hard at the Aussies for one last and mighty try. Who knows what may happen. If not for anything else, play for your pride, for your country and for your teeming fans. Good luck.
The only ‘housefull’ match of the tournament !!. Wonder why cant we have more encounters of this kind than the ones we see at the border..
Pakistani cricketers are not as professional as Indians.Our players are on field on 365 days a year playing local,national international apart from crazy IPL matches.There is defiantly great imbalance between the two teams.It is regrettable that pak players are not exposed to int cricket as much as Indians due to their domestic issues.The disturbed social condition should be first solved.Then only they can tri other tings like cricket,hockey,and other sports.
pakistan cricket board is making a big mistake by selecting so many young players in every tournament even though they are having highly talented experienced players like Mohammed yusuf , this young players lack experience which is most important in international cricket , they have to rectify this mistake otherwise pakistans cricket will be in deep crises
Does anybody know what result Pak needs to qualify?
Thanks
Pak can qualify in following 3 cases:
Case 1: Beat Aussies & SA Beat India
Case 2: Beat Aussies, India Beat SA but with a lesser Net run rate as compared to Pak
Case 3: Lost to Aussies & India vs SA match rained out.
Sorry Case 3 is not valid as in such case India will have more points 3 than Pak 2
Thanks.
What’s your predictions?
What you want????
Virat bowled too and got a wicket..Yuvraz… what to say…. bowling great, fielding awesome, and batting sensible… the run out he took…. man that was a class..
I think Pak team couldnt handle the pressure of breaking the age-old jinx of losing streak against India in World Cup events…Hafeez shows promise as a captain but has a lot to learn in terms of managing pressure and taking crucial decisions…as an Indian I would have certainly preferred more of a fight then eventual meek surrender by the opposition but nevertheless its the unpredictability of both sides is something that leads to their downfall always. Good job Dawn again for putting up a balanced story on this yet again!!
the team who performed well on the day won the match, congratulations to India. Pakistan team play itself to this loss. Playing better under pressure was the key and Indians handled it well.