Indian oil Cup 2007|India v Pakistan 2007 |1st ODI

Mahi’s men performed a clinical job to beat Pakistan comfortably by five wickets with three overs to spare to take 1-0 lead in the five-match Indian Oil Cup One-Day International series at Nehru Stadium.

Robin Uthappa cut a Shoaib Akhtar delivery to the third man fence in the last ball of the 47th over to sent the capacity crowd on their feet over the Indian victory.

Man of the Match Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who promoted himself in the batting order ahead of Yuvraj Singh, batted sensibly to build up a match-winning partnership of 105 runs with his deputy to set the stage for the Indian victory in style and comfort. Both the batsmen hit a half-century each.

Both Dhoni and Yuvraj kept their natural aggression in check to keep rotating the strike so that runs are scored sans taking any risk on a difficult wicket which was earlier well exploited by Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik.

Sachin Tendulkar though performed brilliantly with the bowl by picking two wickets, failed to live up the expectations to his huge fan following here with the bat. The Rawalpindi Express made short work of the little master who was out leg before wicket scoring only four with the team’s score reading 14 in 2.5 overs.

The Prince of Kolkata, Saurav Ganguly then teamed up with Gautam Gambhir to steady the Indian innings. The due together put 82 more runs before Ganguly was ran out at the individual score of 39. Gambhir played an inning of caution and aggression before he was bowled round the legs by an Afridi googly at 44.

Fall of Gambhir brought Dhoni and Yuvraj together in the middle to weave the Indian victory with elan. Yuvraj was out while trying to hit an Abdur Rehman delivery out of ground. He was caught in the deep by Afridi. The Indian vice-captain compiled 58 runs with six fours and one six.

Next to go was Dhoni on being caught by keeper Kamran Akmal while trying to chase a Shoaib Akhtar delivery outside the off stump. Dhoni scored 63 runs in 77 balls hitting eight fours.

Robin Uthappa (11) and Irfan Pathan (5) remained not out as India romped home by by five wickets.

Earlier, Mohammad Yousuf struck a timely half century to help Pakistan bounce back from sluggish middle overs and notch up a competitive total on a two-paced wicket.

Yousuf remained unbeaten on 83 off 88 balls and was involved in two 50-plus stands with Shahid Afridi (31 off 32 balls) and Misbah-ul Haq (27 off 26 balls) for the fifth and sixth wickets respectively as Pakistan posted 239 for seven wickets.

Electing to bat, the Pakistan team started off well as openers Salman Butt (50) and Akmal (12) put on 44-run partnership taking advantage of wayward bowling by Zaheer Khan in initial overs.

Butt was on song from the start during his 57-ball knock, executing several delightful wristy strokes that elicited got spontaneous applause from the sporting capacity crowd sell-out crowd at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium .

Zaheer Khan, who strayed in line and length initially, was at the receiving end of Butt’s belligerence.

The first wicket fell in the 11th over when Akmal (12) became the victim of a questionable decision.

The run rate slowed down as the Indian pacers got into the rhythm and bowled intelligently not allowing the Pakistani batsmen much room. The visitors found the going tougher when host skipper Dhoni introduced spin by introducing Harbhajan Singh in the 18th over.

The over saw Butt completing his well-deserved half century (56b, 8x4) with a couple to deep cover, but the 23-year-old Pakistani departed off the very next ball following a terrible mix-up with vice-captain Younis Khan. Butt edged to extra cover and set off for a single only to be sent back by Younis. Yuvraj Singh displayed silver-quick reflexes by picking up the ball in a flash and threw it to Dhoni who did the rest.

Murali Kartik was brought on in the next over, and he immediately started getting sharp turns and used the spin-friendly conditions intelligently to keep the Pakistani batsmen under check. Kartik was unlucky not to get a wicket when Sourav Ganguly dropped Mohammad Yousuf with the batsman on 9 and the Pakistani total on 94/2.

Not a single boundary was hit between the 14th and the 34th over. Finally, Afridi ended the jinx by lifting Zaheer Khan over long off for the first six of the innings in the 35th over. He and Yousuf then gradually turned things around with a 59-run partnership of 54 balls.

Afridi charged down the track and tried to send Sachin Tendulkar over the ropes, but the bowler kept the delivery wide, the batsman missed the line and the Indian skipper did the rest.

Joining Yousuf after skipper Shoaib Malik (2) got out in the 41st over, Misbah rose to the occasion with some fine slog hits that helped improve the run rate.

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