Asia Cup 2010 Update; Pakistan set a target of 267 for India
India and Pakistan are up against each other in the most awaited game of Asia Cup 2010. Though the arch-rivals take all their duels as a do or die game, this match is a must win for the green shirts. Pakistan must win today against India order to survive in the tournament. The men in green will be forced to pack their bags if they lose today after playing their last match against the Bengali tigers.
Shahid Afridi after winning the toss elected to bat expecting the pitch to support spin later in the evening. Past records demonstrate that mostly the side batting first has won the match. Only time can tell how much assistance the toss will provide to the Green Shirts in this fierce contest.
Yesterday, the hosts, Sri Lanka defeated Bangladesh by a big margin of 126 runs on this track. Indian skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, took heart from the fact that it did not work much under the artificial lights in that game. On the other hand, his rival, Afridi said that it will be tough to chase under flood lights.
Pakistan came in with two changes in its squad; Imran Farhat is in for youngster Shahzaib Hasan, and replacing Mohammad Asif with specialist spinner Saeed Ajmal. The Indian squad stepped in with no changes.
Pakistani openers, Salman Butt and Imran Farhat, were watchful in the opening overs. As the overs progressed they paced up their innings and converted it into a perfect platform for batsmen to come in. A perfect launching pad was set which was required to post a good total by the openers in a must win situation. The openers hardly took any risk against the new ball, played thoughtful shots in the start, and scored confidently once they were set. Indian opening bowlers, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra, moved the new ball around considerably but failed to cause any harm.
The first bowling change came in the 15th over when Dhoni turned to the spinners and the next three overs conceded only three runs. Also, he succeeded in breaking the opening partnership of Butt and Farhat. On a slower delivery of Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag diving to his right grabbed a single-handed catch of Imran Farhat.
After the dismissal of Imran Farhat, Butt and Shoaib Malik shared a 50 run stand between them. In the 29th over, Shoaib Malik lost his wicket when he went on the back foot to play Zaheer Khan’s reverse swing.
Umar Akmal came in at number four. Salman Butt was run out at 74 by MS Dhoni. Umar Amin who came at number five was caught in the slip when Virat Kohli dived to his left taking a brilliant catch. Pakistan, 144 for 1, at one stage lost three wickets in quick succession within a span of 15 runs.
The brilliant efforts of the Pakistani team went to futility in the end mainly due to careless batting. Even Butt whose innings seemed prudent and pragmatic till the end gave away his wicket as if there was no responsibility on his shoulders. Afridi and umar Akmal seemed to revive some hope with Akmal scoring fifty one off forty one balls. The rejuvenation was brought to an end after Saeed Ajmal was caught by Nehra off Zaheer’s bowling with three balls to spare. Pakistan have set a fighting target of 267 runs and now it depends on the bowlers to bowl a decent line and length on an average pitch to contain team India.
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