Zeecric Bureau
Durban, Sept 14: India won their Group D clash against Pakistan with a bowl out session after snatching a thrilling tie in the last over of the match and reached the Super 8s of the Twenty20 World Cup in Durban. While Indian bowlers Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh dislodged the stumps quite easily in the bowl out session, Pakistani bowlers could not do so.
Both the teams now qualify for the next stage of the Twenty20 World Cup. Scotland the third team in the group is knocked out with India’s win.
After a discouraging over from Agarkar in which he gave away 17 vital runs, India were able to snatch a tie right on the last ball of the last over of the match. The score was tied at 141 with Pakistan 7 wickets down. The result will now be decided through bowl out.
After a fairly low score with the bat, India scored high with the ball as Indian bowlers restricted Pakistan to only singles and twos for most of the time. Misbah-ul-Haq became the only Pakistani batsman to score a fifty.
Pakistan started cautiously but lost their first wicket on the first ball of third ovr. Imran Nazir made his way back home as he tried to slog one of RP Singh’s delivery. The ball did not touch his bat and went on to hit the off stump. Nazir made 7 runs from 8 balls.
Salman Butt became the next casualty to Indian bowling as he tried to nudge the ball to the third man. Butt in the process gave an easy catch to the wicketkeeper Dhoni.
Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan then tried to stabilise things for a while at Kingsmead. But in the 9th over, Kamran Akmal was dismissed while trying to take a run. Yuvraj Singh returned a direct hit at the bowler’s end and Akmal who was ball watching fell terribly short of his crease. He made 15 runs from 13 balls.
Then in the same over, Younis Khan was bowled by Irfan Pathan. Pathan who was playing for India after a long time got the wicket in his first over. Younis departed for 2 and wasted 8 vital balls.
Restricting himself for a very long time, Shoaib Malik felt restless and decided to let go in the 15th over. While his shot on the second last ball produced a four, his shot on the last ball of the over was misguided and went straight into the hands of Harbhajan Singh standing at midwicket. Pakistan skipper made 20 runs in 18 balls.
It took the likes of Harbhajan Singh to dismiss the boom-boom Shahid Afridi as he was caught by Dinesh Karthik at mid-off. Afridi could manage only 7 runs from 9 balls.
The 19th over from Ajit Agarkar went for an exasperating 17 runs and Pakistan required just 12 runs from 6 balls.
Sreesanth then forced a tie on the last ball of the 20th over to force a tie and bowl out then came into existence.
Meanwhile, India managed to get to a moderate total of 141 runs against Pakistan. Recovering from initial jolts from Asif, Uthappa stroked a decent fifty in rainy conditions definitely not ideal for batting.
Barely getting into the Twenty20 groove India lost their first wicket as Gautam Gambhir pelted Mohammad Asif’s third delivery of the match straight into the hands of the bowler. Gambhir departed on duck and India could manage just a run in the first over.
Showing some bravado in the second over, India fell into the dungeon again as Virender Sehwag was bowled by Mohammad Asif. Sehwag edged the delivery from Asif onto his own stumps. Sehwag made 5 runs.
Third Indian wicket coincidently fell in Asif’s third over as Yuvraj Singh gave a leading edge from his bat to give a simple catch to Shoaib Malik. Yuvraj made just a run.
Asif scalped another wicket in the 7th over of the innings as Dinesh Karthik was clean bowled by the bowler.
Robin Uthappa who was playing well was dismissed just as he made his first twenty20 fifty.
Intermittent rain marred the proceedings of the Indian innings but India thrived to 141 for 9 in the end.
Pakistan earlier won the toss and opted to bowl first against India. After losing the toss , Indian captain Mahendra Dhoni said that in a Twenty20 match it does not matter who wins the toss.
India were playing their first match of the Twenty20 World Championship as Thursday’s match against Scotland was washed off. For India, this is a make or break situation as it may upset their chance to remain in the contest.
Teams
India: Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (C), Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, S Sreesanth.
Pakistan: Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir, Sohail Tanvir, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik (C), Misbah-Ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif.
