Bangalore: Pakistan on Tuesday registered their first Twenty20 victory
over India, beating their arch-rivals by five wickets to take 1-0 lead in the
two match T-20 series.
Batting first, Indian squad scored 133 for nine in 20 overs
which the Pakistan chased down with two balls remaining, after suffering early
jitters due to a brilliant opening spell by debutant Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Needing 10 runs in the final over Shoaib Malik hit a
straight six off the fourth delivery off Indian bowling's weakest link Ravindra
Jadeja to overhaul the target and to clinch the issue.
The debutant, Kumar got India a wicket in the first over.
The 22-year-old, who has made his way into the Indian team on the back of
impressive performances in the domestic circuit, castled Nasir Jamshed to claim
his first international scalp.
Then, in his next over the youngster got Ahmed Shehzad to
edge the ball to MS Dhoni behind the stumps; and on the last ball of the same
over he knocked back Umar Akmal’s middle-stump.
With their team reeling on 12 for three, captain Mohammad
Hafeez and Shoaib Malik went about the task of reviving the Pakistan innings.
After taking their time to get in, the duo counterattacked in the second half
of the innings.
After they collected 13 runs in the 11th over off Virat
Kohli, Malik launched Yuvraj Singh over mid-wicket for a six as duo picked 10
from the next over. Yuvraj Singh who was
successful against the English went for runs as Hafeez too smashed him for a
six.
And though, Ravindra Jadeja had conceded only four runs in his first, he
was hit over the fence by both batsmen in his next. The Pakistan skipper
leading from the front brought up his fifty with one such big hit over
long-off.
With Pakistan inching towards the target and 16 runs
required of 18 balls Hafeez holed out to Kumar off Ishant Sharma. And a couple
of deliveries later Ravindra Jadeja’s brilliant running catch after Malik took
the aerial route went in vain as the delivery was adjudged a no-ball. But
Ishant Sharma had kept India in the game by conceding only two runs in the over
and taking a wicket.The home team then got a breakthrough in the next over as
Akmal hit Ashoke Dinda to thirdman where Ishant Sharma took the catch.
Earlier, Indian batting suffered an unexpected collapse as
they were restricted for a meagre 133 for 9. Openers Gautam Gambhir (43 off 41)
and Ajinkya Rahane (42 off 31) gave India a solid platform, putting up 77 for
the first wicket.
But everything changed drastically once Rahane got out
trying to clear the extra cover boundary off Shahid Afridi. India lost nine
wickets for an addition of just 47 runs.
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Man-of-the-Match: Mohammad Hafeez for his match winning
61-run knock.
Brief scores: India 133/9 in 20 overs (G Gambhir 43, A
Rahane 42,U Gul 3/21, S Ajmal 2/25) lost to Pakistan 134/5 in 19.4 overs (M
Hafeez 61, S Malik 57*, B Kumar 3/9) by 5 wickets