Internet Desk: Virat Kohli once again stamped his class guiding India to a comprehensive 5 wickets victory against Pakistan in the round robin league match in Asia Cup. The diminutive batsman stroked a powerful 49 runs to guide India home. Yuvraj Singh played a responsible knock, to remain not out on 14 runs along with Dhoni who scored 7 runs. India romped home scoring 85/5 in 15.3 over, thereby registering its second successive win in the tournament.
Both Virat and Yuvraj weathered the storm to power India home after Mohammad Amir wrecked havoc at the start of Indian innings with a brilliant spell of swing bowling.
Muhammad Amir gave Pakistan a perfect start seeing the back of Rohit Sharma off his second delivery for a duck. Amir was again in action after two deliveries as he got rid of Rahane in a similar fashion . Rahane too did not trouble the scorers. Amir picked up his third wicket that of Raina , who played an irresponsible shot trying to pull the left arm fast bowler over mid wicket . India was in a spot losing three wickets after scoring only 8 runs.
But Yuvraj Singh and Man of the Match Virat Kohli played sensibly mixing aggression with defense to steer India home. They put on a match winning partnership of 68 runs. Kohli’s 71 ball innings was studded with 7 hits to the fence. Yuvraj played the perfect match for Kohli as he did not looked to play any rash shots , rather concentrating giving stikes to Kohli . Dhoni hit the winning runs for India.
Earlier , an inspired bowling performance from India restricted Pakistan to in the round robin league match at Mirpur. Indians were always on top as they never let the Pakistani batsmen build a partnership. None of the top order Pakistani batsmen chipped in as wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Sarfaraz Ahmed scored a patient knock of to lend some respectability to the
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and put Pakistan into bat first considering the dew factor . India were forced to make one change with Shikhar Dhawan making way for Rahane . The left hander had a niggle that kept him out for this crunch match. Pakistan though went with four prong pace attack in Wahab Riyaz , Muhammad Sami, Muhammad Amir and Md Irfan .
Ashish Nehra gave India a perfect start getting rid of opener Md Hafeez who edged it to Dhoni for 4 runs . Bumrah, who shared the new ball with Nehra started with a maiden . The youngster got the wicket of Sharjeel Khan looking for a cut shot only to edge it to Rahane at slips. Khan could only manage 7 runs with the score on 22.
A loud shout for a caught behind against Khurram Manzoor turned down . Replays suggest he did nicked it. Manzoor tried to move across his stumps to the off side and scoop past the keeper, but manged to glove it to Dhoni. Indians were amused to see the decision turned down. Manzoor did not last too long though as a sheer brilliance on the field from Kohli ran him. Pakistan could only manage 32/3 after the first 6 overs , thanks to some brilliant fielding by the Indians .
Pandya gave a huge breakthrough getting rid of experienced Shoaib Malik who was caught behind after just scoring 4 runs .
Yuvraj struck in his first delivery getting Umar Akmal plumbed . Pakistan innings was in tatters with Afridi running himself out trying to snatch an extra run . It was a brilliant flat throw from Ravindra Jadeja that effected the run out . Pakistan were 42/6 after 9 overs .
Jadeja got Riaz plumbed for 4 runs with Pakistan innings in tatters at 52/7 . The left hander gave another breakthrough as he got through the defence of Sarafaraz Ahmed for 25 runs with the score at 70/8 .
Big hitting from Sami towards the end of the innings arised hopes for Pakistan to reach 100 but that was not enough . He was caught in the deep by Raina off Pandya trying to send the ball in the stands after managing only 8 runs. Pandya picked his third wicket of the match getting rid of Mohammad Amir for only 1. Pandya was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he ended with a spell of 3.3 -0-8-3. Pakistan were bowled out for only 83 runs after 17.3 overs setting India a target of 84 runs to win.
India find themselves sitting pretty on top of the table with consecutive wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan.