It was a day when nothing got India ticking as the former World champions India lost to Pakistan by 54 runs. The greatest irony was that the last time India met Pakistan during the 2004 Champions Trophy in Birmingham, it was Mohammed Yousuf who had lead the way with a valiant 81 and on Saturday scored a masterful 87. Chasing an imposing 303 for a win, India was kept in the hunt by a valiant knock of 76 by Rahul Dravid. The other notable contribution came from Suresh Raina who scored 46.
A superbly-crafted 128 by middle order batsman Shoaib Malik and his mammoth 206-run combination with Mohammad Yousuf for the fourth wicket carried Pakistan to a massive 302/9 in their Group A game against India at the SuperSport Park here on Saturday.
After Younis Khan chose to bat at the toss, he could not have asked for a better effort from his batsmen. Openers Imran Nazir and Kamran Akmal started briskly but wickets fell at regular intervals till the 15th over when Malik and Yousuf came together.
From then on, India were always chasing shadows. The duo started slowly and Malik in particular had a strike rate of around 50 initially. It was left to Yousuf to keep the scoreboard moving and the stylist paced himself beautifully scoring at almost a run a ball till Malik hit his straps.
Nazir fell in the fifth over, carving Ashish Nehra to Harbhajan Singh off a mis-hit but a good momentum had been set. Three overs later, Akmal followed when he dragged Nehra back on to his stumps.
Younis himself — batting through the pain barrier — kept his end going as Malik settled down. Rudra Pratap Singh, who had a nightmare start with 21 going off his opening two overs, came back and induced an edge for Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the sticks.
For the next 31 overs, India sat back and let the initiative drift away. If only the Men in Blue had curbed the main scoring point for Malik—-the third man region.
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