Centurion (Johannesburg), Sept 26: Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik carried Pakistan to 302 in the alloted 50 over in their first international against India in close to a year and a half. In the much awaited match Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. Ashish Nehra gave India the first breakthrough when he sent Imran Nazir to the pavillion at the score of 20. Then the Pakistani middle order did not let the Indian bowlers settle and kept scoring singles and doubles.
Those late-middle overs also featured the biggest blow to India, the negating of Harbhajan Singh through easily milked singles, and craftily late-cut boundaries. Habhajan’s already poor record against Pakistan now reads 10 wickets in 15 ODIs, at an average of 71.1 and a strike-rate of 87.6. Following the trend, Malik improved his already strong record against India: four of his seven centuries have now come against them, and his average of 52.24 against India is a stark contrast to his 35.27 overall. He also crossed 5000 ODI runs during the innings, and 1515 of those have come against his favourite opposition.
India’s pace bowlers seemed to have made a remarkable comeback from the openers’ onslaught when they reduced Pakistan from 51 for 1 in seven overs to 65 for 3 in 15. The first seven overs had featured nine smashing boundaries, the next eight none. The strike was not being rotated, and MS Dhoni took that opportunity to delay the introduction of Harbhajan, and get through some cheap overs from the part-timers. He needed all the cheap overs he could get from the part-timers because one of his main bowlers, RP Singh, was completely off tune.
Despite the late flurry of wickets, and a two-run last over from Ishant, Pakistan managed 41 in the last five overs, setting India five more than has ever been chased in Centurion. Brief Score: Pakistan 302/9 (50 ov) Shoaib Malik 128, M Yousuf 87, Nehra 4/55 India 18/0 (3.2 ov) (Agencies)
Those late-middle overs also featured the biggest blow to India, the negating of Harbhajan Singh through easily milked singles, and craftily late-cut boundaries. Habhajan’s already poor record against Pakistan now reads 10 wickets in 15 ODIs, at an average of 71.1 and a strike-rate of 87.6. Following the trend, Malik improved his already strong record against India: four of his seven centuries have now come against them, and his average of 52.24 against India is a stark contrast to his 35.27 overall. He also crossed 5000 ODI runs during the innings, and 1515 of those have come against his favourite opposition.
India’s pace bowlers seemed to have made a remarkable comeback from the openers’ onslaught when they reduced Pakistan from 51 for 1 in seven overs to 65 for 3 in 15. The first seven overs had featured nine smashing boundaries, the next eight none. The strike was not being rotated, and MS Dhoni took that opportunity to delay the introduction of Harbhajan, and get through some cheap overs from the part-timers. He needed all the cheap overs he could get from the part-timers because one of his main bowlers, RP Singh, was completely off tune.
Despite the late flurry of wickets, and a two-run last over from Ishant, Pakistan managed 41 in the last five overs, setting India five more than has ever been chased in Centurion. Brief Score: Pakistan 302/9 (50 ov) Shoaib Malik 128, M Yousuf 87, Nehra 4/55 India 18/0 (3.2 ov) (Agencies)
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