Pakistan beat India by 5 wickets in ICCWT20 warm-up

By Fathima Zanaida

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (TheSportsNext) September 17, 2012: A classy match-winning unbeaten knock by Karman Akmal helped Pakistan defeat India by five wickets in their warm-up match on Monday ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 at R Premadasa Stadium.

Kamran Akmal turned himself into hero from a zero with a brutal knock of 92 not out from just 50 balls and hit as many as six maximums and five boundaries as Pakistan chased down a daunting target of 186 runs with five balls to spare.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first to challenge a somewhat weaker Pakistani batting line-up by putting them under pressure of chasing.

Fast bowler Umar Gul got rid of Gautam Gambhir (10 from 16 – 2 fours) early in the innings and world’s best off-spinner Saeed Ajmal removed dangerous looking Virender Sehwag (26 from 14 – 4 fours, 1 six) to leave India two down for 45 runs on the board in the sixth over.

However, at ICCWT20 India’s batting sensation Virat Kohli (75 not out from 47 – 7 fours, 2 sixes) once again accepted the responsibility of taking the burden of batting on his young shoulders and together with quality batsman Rohit Sharma (56 from 40 – 6 fours, 2 sixes) scored 127 runs for the third wicket partnership which almost took the game away from Pakistan.

In the end, India finished with a massive total of 185 for three from their 20 overs.

Saeed Ajmal, expectedly, was the top bowler for Pakistan as he grabbed two wickets for only 22 runs from his four overs while Umar Gul took one wicket for 31 runs from his four. Shahid Afridi proved expensive option as he went for 41 runs from his four overs.

Very few cricket pundits and experts expected Pakistan to make a good match of the target but Pakistan’s WT20 skipper Mohammad Hafeez (38 from 29 – 4 fours, 1 six) set the tone with an aggressive knock and when he left the field Pakistan had scored 84 for three in the 10^th over and looked good to chase down the target but someone had to take the responsibility.

Imran Nazir (13 from 11 – 1 four) looked good before giving his wicket away to Ravichandran Ashwin while unlucky Nasir Jamshed (Duck) failed to face even a single delivery before getting run out to a mix up.

Shahid Afridi (Duck) also failed to trouble either Indians or scorers before Umar Akmal (2 from 5) also gifted his wicket to Ashwin thus leaving Pakistan in a quagmire of problems.

However, Kamran Akmal (92 not out from 50 – 5 fours, 6 sixes) joined forces with former skipper Shoaib Malik (37 not out from 18 – 2 fours, 2 sixes) made sure that Pakistan achieve the target with an unbeaten 95 runs partnership for the sixth wicket.

This was the first time that Pakistan defeated India in any match under the ICC World Cups and India had enjoyed an upper hand in the last three meetings between the two arch rivals.

Kamran Akmal, who was declared Man of the Match, was exceptional with his batting and showed no signs of nervousness and used his big-hitting ability to the maximum and finished the game in style by hitting Irfan Pathan over the Extra Cover position for a maximum to clinch the target on the first ball of the 20^th over.

For India, Ravichandran Ashwin was the only bowler who looked impressive as he bagged four wickets for 23 runs but none of the other bowlers cold support him and once again doubts were raised on the potency of Indian bowling attack ahead of the ICCWT20 which is starting from Tuesday.

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