Junaid Khan dismantled the India top order with four early wickets, and despite a spirited Indian fightback led by MS Dhoni, Pakistan successfully chased down 227 thanks to an unbeaten hundred from Nasir Jamshed. Pakistan now lead the 3-match series 1-0.

Indian Innings

After a delayed start, Misbah-ul-Haq continued Pakistan’s winning streak in India – winning the toss that is – and again chose to bowl first. With overcast conditions and a damp pitch, the skipper would have been hoping his three seamers – Gul, Junaid and Irfan – could make early in roads into the Indian batting line up. Umar Akmal was dropped whilst Younis Khan made his ODI return. For India, Virender Sehwag made a comeback.

Irfan and Junaid opened the bowling and there were hints of movement in the air and off the pitch from the very first over. Irfan used his height to extract bounce from the pitch and bowled a maiden opening over. Junaid also looked to trouble the batsmen as he got the ball swinging both ways and generated some good pace with the ball skidding off the pitch.

Junaid claimed the first wicket with a cracker of a delivery to Sehwag with the ball swinging back into the batsmen as the ball nipped through the gap between bat and pad and crashed into the stumps. In the following over, Irfan also justified Misbah’s decision to bowl first as once again the ball nipped through the gap between bat and pad and this time knocked back Gambhir’s stumps. 

Junaid Khan continued his magnificent spell of bowling and knocked back Kohli’s stumps to dismiss the batsmen for a duck and leaving India on 19/3 in the sixth over of the innings. Later on in the same over Junaid produced another unplayable delivery to Yuvraj Singh who was beaten all ends up as Pakistan claimed their fourth wicket of the innings with India only on 20. The Pakistani left arm seamers exploited the conditions brilliantly by knocking back the stumps of all four top order Indian batsmen.

Umar Gul was bought into the attack to bowl the 9th over and got his first delivery to curve pass the outside edge of Rohit Sharma’s bat. In the final over of the powerplay, the Pakistani team continued to apply the pressure as Junaid got the outside edge off Sharma’s bat and Hafeez snapped up a magnificent low sharp catch at third slip, as India finished the power play on 29/5.

Junaid bowled the 12th over of the innings to conclude his extraordinary opening spell of bowling with figures of 17/4 from 6 overs. However batting became easier as the moisture in the pitch dried up and the ball got slightly older. Runs started flowing more freely as Dhoni and Raina kept the scoreboard ticking over and moved India onto 76/5 after 20 overs.

The spinners – Hafeez, Malik & Ajmal – were introduced to the bowling attack and straight away it was obvious that the pitch also had something to offer to the slower bowlers. The spinners looked to bog down the batsmen as they only managed to score 8 runs in five overs and the score crawled to 84/5 after 25 overs. The pressure being applied on the batsmen produced dividends when Dhoni chipped a simple catch to Misbah off of Hafeez’s bowling only for the Pakistani skipper put the catch down.

Despite the slow run rate, Dhoni and Raina ensured they did not give their wicket away and built a very well-constructed partnership as India’s 100 came up in the 31st over of the innings. 
To try and counter attack, Dhoni and Raina decided to take the power play in the 34th over, but on the second ball of the powerplay Hafeez – who was in the middle of a remarkably economical spell – struck to break the partnership and knock back Raina’s off-stump. Ashwin came to the crease and struck a boundary off of Ajmal – the first boundary in 87 balls. What was of greater concern to Pakistan was that Azhar Ali and Mohammad Irfan both seemed to suffer some sort of injury in the field and had to go off in the 37th over.

Hafeez came on to wrap up a very economical spell in which he only gave 26 runs in 10 overs and claimed the wicket of Suresh Raina. By the end of the powerplay India had managed to get to 125/6 in the 38th over. Dhoni looked to accelerate towards the end of the innings as he dispatched Junaid for the first six of the innings off the second ball of the 40th over, an over which went for 14 runs. The Indian skipper continued to battle on as he bought up his half-century in 86 balls as India moved onto 151/6 with nine overs remaining in the innings.

As the innings drew to a close the Indian captain attempted to guide his side despite the humidity increasing taking its toll on the players. Dhoni battled through the conditions and led his team to a competitive total as India was on 175/6 with five overs remaining. The Indian skipper had given his team a great platform to launch from in final five overs and that’s exactly what they did off Ajmals third delivery which was dispatched over the stands by Dhoni for a massive 6.

As Misbah’s dropped catch started to prove more and more expensive, Dhoni took the attack to the Pakistani bowling. Luck also started going in India’s favour as a couple of top edges bounced short of third man in the deep. Despite Dhoni looking to attack, Ajmal finished off his spell very well, only giving three runs in the 48th over. India reached their 200 and Dhoni completed a phenomenal century as he dispatched Irfan for 14 runs in the first 3 balls of the 49th over which eventually went for 21 runs. Junaid came to wrap up the innings in which the Indian team completed a magnificent recovery to give themselves a very good chance in this match and give Pakistan a target of 228.

It was a phenomenal innings to watch for both sets of spectators. The Pakistanis had plenty to cheer about to start off with which included a magnificent opening spell of bowling by Irfan and Junaid and the spinners came on to put a stranglehold on the Indian batting line up. However, after Misbah dropped captain Dhoni, the Indian skipper did not look back. Dhoni took full advantage of the extra life given to him by his Pakistani counterpart and demonstrated a phenomenal amount of determination, physical stamina and composure to play a great ODI knock and complete a phenomenal recovery.

Fall of Wickets:

17/1 Sehwag, 3.5 Overs
17/2 Gambhir, 4.4 Overs
19/3 Kohli, 5.4 Overs
20/4 Yuvraj, 5.6 Overs
29/5 Sharma, 9.4 Overs
102/6 Raina, 34.2 Overs



Pakistan Innings

After reducing India to 29/5 and then letting them "amass" 227 under overcast and humid conditions, it was expected that Pakistan would approach the run chase with some apprehension.

What was not expected was the absolutely disastrous start to the Pakistani innings. Mohammed Hafeez who has so far been having a great run of form in batting, bowling and fielding was cleaned up first ball by Pakistan’s latest bogie man - Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

The scorecard thus read 0/1 after 0.1 deliveries and in walked Azhar Ali who is known for his “slow and steady” approach in Test matches. It wasn’t entirely clear if the same style of batting was suited for this type of game. In any case, Azhar and Nasir Jamshed settled into a consolidation phase but in the course of this action, consumed about 10 overs to add a paltry 21 runs before Azhar suffered a stroke selection failure and lobbed an easy catch to Kumar off Sharma.

This brought the veteran Younis Khan into the crease and he began where Azhar left off but in double quick time. Nasir Jamshed, who seemed to be taking cue from his partners also upped his run accumulation speed as both batsmen started to play with more urgency and authority, lifting the run rate closer to 3.5. Younis and Jamshed then put on a match-changing partnership, the highlight being two sixes being smashed by the batsmen off a Raina over. Younis Khan played his characteristic sweep shots off the spinners, whilst Jamshed focused on some powerful drives. Younis Khan finally departed for a well-crafted 58 off 60 deliveries after a catch by Ashwin which was referred to the third umpire. The partnership with Jamshed was 112 and was formidable in the context of the total being chased. 

Misbah came out and joined Jamshed and Pakistan looked to be cruising, before a very well-disguised slower ball by Sharma deceived the Pakistani captain brought Malik to the crease. The pressure shifted to the batsmen, but Malik survived, including an edge off Ashwin being adjudged no-ball, as the spinner marginally failed to keep his foot behind the line. 

Jamshed completed a well-deserved ODI hundred off 127 balls in the 47th over, his second ODI century, both against India. He was well supported first by Younis Khan and then by Shoaib Malik at the end. 


Fall of wickets: 

1/0 Mohammad Hafeez, 0.1 overs 
2/21 Azhar Ali, 10.2 overs
3/133 Younis Khan, 30.3 overs
4/172 Misbah-ul-Haq, 38.2 overs


Match Summary 

After Junaid had reduced India to 29/5, a magnificent Dhoni innings drove India to a respectable total, but a Jamshed century and an almost run-a-ball half-century by Younis Khan ensured Pakistan chased the 228 required with relative ease.