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India gave a strong statement of intent to all the challengers of their T20 World Champions title when they easily dismantled Pakistan in the final warm-up match before the real thing begins. India, led by an excellent batting performance from Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir, reached the target of 159 set by Pakistan with 9 wickets and 3 full overs to spare.

The tie, designated by the ICC as a "Catch the Spirit" match, served as a fundraiser to help support families of the victims of the attack on the Sri Lanka team and officials in Lahore in March. Crowds started pouring into the stadium hours before the action was to begin. The packed house made it the perfect dress rehearsal for the teams to test themselves for the atmosphere (read pressure) that the World T20 would generate. Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan continued to sit out of the games so far with injuries.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat, opening the innings with two youngsters in Shahzaib Hasan and Ahmed Shehzad. Praveen Kumar struck early to dismiss Shahzaib Hasan for naught off the fifth ball, but 17-year old Ahmed Shehzad wreacked havoc on the Indian bowlers alongwith Karman Akmal. Pakistan raced to 45 in just 4.3 overs, sending almost every other delivery to the boundary.

Shehzad's inexperience however cost Akmal his wicket. In a moment of madness, Shehzad first called Akmal for a quick run then sent him back, but it was too late thanks to some excellent fielding from Suresh Raina who ran from cover picked the ball up and with a direct wicket at the non-stirker's end sent back Akmal. Then Shehzaad himself was caught by Raina off Ishant, and Afridi too returned to the dug-out after being caught behind by Dhoni off Irfan on the very next ball. Pakistan were suddenly reeling at 45 for 4 in the space of just 4 deliveries.

Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan tried to steady the ship, but just when you thought that the two would set-up a decent partnership, Malik was out for 14, caught behind off Ojha's bowling. Pakistan were now 63/5 from 8.2 overs.

Younis Khan and Misbah ul Haq played cautiously, ensuring that the squad's tail wasn't exposed too soon. They added 50 runs from 7.3 overs before Younis fell. The Pakistan skipper was looking for the reverse sweep but not only did Harbhajan spot it and slow down the ball further, but he slipped it down the leg side and put it out of the reach of Younis, who ended up tumbling to the ground in the end. Dhoni did the rest.

Misbah and Yasir Arafat finished the innings for Pakistan, adding 45 runs including 29 off the last two overs, to take them to 158/6 from their quota of 20 overs.

 

Set a challenging total of 159, India pushed Rohit Sharma up the order in place of the injured Sehwag just as they did against New Zealand on Monday. But even in Sehwag's absence, Pakistan could do little more than just watch in awe as Gambhir and Sharma took the game to them. Gul was given some special treatment, especially early on with his first spell of 2 overs going for 21 runs, Gambhir sending his deliveries to the boundary thrice and Sharma once.

The Indian openers were regularly finding the boundaries and also kept rotating strike, pushing for singles and twos. Sharma had taken over the job of pushing up the run rate. India reached their 50 in just 5.3 overs. Younis Khan tried everything possible but just couldn't stem the flow of runs. Five overs later Sharma reached his fifty, from just 37 balls while India had progressed to 88 for no loss.

Pakistan did manage a breakthrough, but it only came in the 16th over. Rohit Sharma had blazed his way to 80 from 52 deliveries before top-edging the ball while trying to pull. Ahmad Shehzad took a brilliant catch, running away from the wicket, diving and just about managing to hold onto the ball. But the damage had already been done with India racing on to 140 after 16 overs. Dhoni joined Gambhir and got into the groove of things, hitting Gul for two boundaries in the next over which ended with the scores tied.

Mohammad Amir bowled a wide ball on the first delivery of the 18th over which ended proceedings. Gambhir was unbeaten with 52 from 47 balls, a welcome sign of form for the lefty who hadn't done too well in the just concluded Indian Premier League (IPL). Dhoni had scored 9 from the 4 balls he faced, but the day undoubtedly belonged to Rohit Sharma. Sharma had done brilliantly for the Deccan Chargers in the IPL and this performance showed that he should be the man to watch from India's highly decorated line-up. India had done a good job in all departments, but one factor that would be a worry to them could be their bowling at the death. They gave away a number of runs at the end against New Zealand too and on that occassion they were made to pay the price for it. The fielding was good, and once Sehwag and Zaheer Khan are added to the line-up, India should be clear favourites to defend their World title.

 

Mini Scorecard:
Pakistan - 158/6 (20 overs)
Misbah 37*           I Sharma 1-11

India - 159/1 (17 overs)
R Sharma 80        M Amir 1-18

Photograph Copyright: ICC

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