India devour Pakistan like a piece of cake

Having given Pakistan an eight-wicket defeat, India have proved that they are the most-deserved team to lift the Champions Trophy title. On the other hand, the tournament has turned out to be a nightmare for Pakistan who could not win even a single competition, while India have won the all three.

[caption id="attachment_1643" align="alignright" width="300"] India not only bowled and batted brilliantly, their fielding also remained excellent as evident in this picture (Photo: AFP)[/caption]

Fans’ interest in the match had already faded away as it did not have any consequences for both teams. Moreover, rain added insult to injury. Frequent interruptions because of rain reduced Pakistan’s innings to 40 overs, while India’s target was revised several times to finally settle down at 102 in 22 overs which they chased down at the loss of two wickets like a piece of cake.

Pakistan’s innings was customary as their top-order failed, the middle-order produced just one reasonable partnership and afterwards the while team was reduced to a low score.

Nasir Jamshed and Kamran opened Pakistan’s innings after India put the green shirts into bat after winning the toss. Jamshed, who has a good record against India and has been in form in the earlier matches of the tournament, was declared lbw in the beginning. However he decided to use review option. The third umpire’s decision resuscitated Jamshed back to life. But he failed to utilise the chance and fell prey to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Jamshed’s dismissal put brakes on score until Mohammad Hafeez hit a few fours against Umesh Yadav. Pakistan completed 50 runs in 12 overs and rain started pouring down. It affected Pakistan batting badly because as soon as the game resumed, Hafeez was sent packing on the very first ball. In the next over, Kamran was walking back to the pavilion. Rain visited Birmingham again as Pakistan had lost their two settled batsmen. Hafeez scored 27 while Kamran made 21.

When the match resumed after almost three hours, Misbah-ul-Haq and Asaf Shafiq were looking to guide Pakistan for a good total. But Ravindra Jadeja turned the situation upside down. It wasn’t clear what Misbah was up to when he lost his wicket. First he pushed himself on the backfoot and then tried to stop the ball coming in front of it. As a result, the ball dodged Misbah’s bat and pad and went straight to hit the leg stump. Misbah’s innings ended on 22 and the match began to slip from Pakistan’s grasp. Moment later, MS Dhoni took a wonderful catch of Shafiq on Ishant Sharma’s delivery. The field umpire declared him not out initially, but review showed that the ball slightly touched his bat. Half of Pakistan’s team was out on just 131.

Among the incoming batsmen, Shoaib Malik was lbw as he tried to play hockey in cricket and Wahab Riaz was clean bowled by Ashwin. Umar Amin shared his bit by making an unbeaten 27 off 26, but wickets continued to fall from the other end and it was all over on 165 runs.

Pakistan’s batting remained consistently inconsistent in the tournament, while India showed their brilliance in both bowling and fielding departments.

Kumar, Sharma, Ashwin and Jadeja all took two wickets apiece.

In the beginning, India had 40 overs to play, but after continual interruptions due to the inclement weather, their target was finally revised down to 102 in 22 over which they chased on the first ball of the 20^th over.

Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan gave India a befitting start of 58 runs. Saeed Ajmal took Sharma’s wicket when he was 18 off 31. Dhawan (48 off 41) lost his wicket at time when India were just 24 runs short of victory. Virat Kohli scored 22 and remained not out.

Ajmal and Riaz claimed each of the two wickets taken by Pakistan.

Kumar was given the man-of-the-match award.

That match that was being regarded as the “World War of Cricket” and “Maha Yudh” saw a one-sided end. India moved towards the title, leaving many questions for Pakistan. The biggest question was the failure of Pakistani batsmen despite the fact that a foreign coach was hired for the job in the tournament. Pakistan bowling, on the other hand, remained average as they gave tough time to West Indies against just 170 runs, restricted South Africa to 234 and did not let the Indian batsmen, especially, Shikhar Dhawan, ruled the match as they had done in the previous matches. But Pakistani batsmen did not support them throughout. Misbah and Jamshed did put some resistance but it is just called resistance, not good innings. Pakistan could not even reach 200-run mark in the three matches they played and every time whole of the team was out.

Now as India are set to play their semi-final on June 20 against the second number team of Group A, Pakistan will be returning home tomorrow (Sunday).

India vs Pakistan

Champions Trophy, Match 10

June 15, 2013

Venue: Edgbaston, Birmingham

Result: India won by 8 wickets (D/L method)

Man of the match: Bhuvneshwar Kumar

		Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Nasir Jamshed	c Raina b Kumar	2	9	0	0
Kamran Akmal	c Kohli b Ashwin	21	38	2	0
Mohammad Hafeez	c Dhoni b Kumar	27	31	5	0
Asad Shafiq	c Dhoni b I Sharma	41	57	3	0
Misbah-ul-Haq	b Jadeja	22	33	1	0
Shoaib Malik	lbw b Jadeja	17	23	2	0
Umar Amin	not out	27	26	3	0
Wahab Riaz	b Ashwin	0	2	0	0
Saeed Ajmal	c RG Sharma b I Sharma	5	16	0	0
Junaid Khan	run out (Kohli)	0	1	0	0
Mohammad Irfan	run out (Yadav)	0	2	0	0
Extras	leg-bye 1, wides 2)	3
Total	(all out; 39.4 overs)	165

 

India (bowling)	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	8	2	19	2
Umesh Yadav	6.4	0	29	0
Ishant Sharma	7	0	40	2
Ravichandran Ashwin	8	0	35	2
Virat Kohli	2	0	11	0
Ravindra Jadeja	8	1	30	2

 

Target: 102 runs (22 overs)		Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Rohit Sharma	c Misbah-ul-Haq b Saeed Ajmal	18	32	2	0
Shikhar Dhawan	c Nasir Jamshed b Wahab Riaz	48	41	5	0
Virat Kohli	not out	22	27	3	0
Dinesh Karthik	not out	11	15	1	0
Extras	wides 3)	3
Total	(2 wickets; 19.1 overs)	102

 

Pakistan (bowling)	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Mohammad Irfan	4	0	24	0
Junaid Khan	4	0	21	0
Saeed Ajmal	5	0	29	1
Mohammad Hafeez	2.1	0	8	0
Wahab Riaz	4	0	20	1