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| February 20, 2006 | Monday | Muharram 21, 1427 |
Pakistan suffer worst-ever ODI defeat at home
KARACHI, Feb 19: A brilliant Yuvraj Singh century inspired India to another crushing victory over Pakistan in the One-day International series which concluded on Sunday.
The margin of India’s win was an emphatic eight wickets which was chiefly based around Yuvraj’s superlative 107 off 93 deliveries — the left-hander’s sixth one-day century and first against Pakistan.
Yuvraj continued in the same vein as he had done all through the series and was the obvious choice for both the Man-of-the-Match and the Man-of-the-Series awards and ended the series 344 runs with three ‘not outs’.
He paced his innings skillfully at the fall of the first wicket and got to his first 50 off 72 balls with eight fours.
Yuvraj later admitted that it was the best he batted over a long period.
“It has been my most consistent series without any doubt. I was the ‘zone’ from the start in every match and this came about after I put in a lot of hard work.”
“I was keen to take up the challenge and in this series I made sure that the opportunities don’t go waste.”
India’s other batting hero in this series has been Mahendra Dhoni. He was the ideal foil to Yuvraj’s assured stroke-play and bludgeoned a 56-ball 77 in the third-wicket partnership of 146 in just 99 balls.
Dhoni it was who wound up the tour for his side 19 deliveries early when Mohammad Sami was lifted for successive sixes when the end was in sight.
The right-hander’s third half-century of the series was embellished with six scoring fours and four sixes, the two big hits coming off Mohammad Asif and Yasir Arafat.
The platform of India’s well-deserved victory was provided by the opening stand of 69 between Gambhir (38 off 50 balls, six fours) and Rahul Dravid, who made exactly 50 after going in first.
The Indian captain’s 68th half-century off 82 balls included six boundaries before he was smartly taken by Shoaib Malik off Sami at the start of the 31st over.
The second-wicket stand between Dravid and Yuvraj was worth 72. India never let the momentum of having sealed the series at Multan slip away while coming into the last fixture of the tour.
Both teams showed two changes from the fourth ODI.
Apart from Tendulkar, India also allowed Irfan Pathan take a well-earned rest and brought in Zaheer Khan and off-spinning all-rounder Ramesh Powar.
Pakistan, as expected, left out the ‘out-of-form’ Rana Navedul Hasan and Salman Butt and replaced the pair with Rao Iftikhar and Imran Farhat.
Pakistan floundered after Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat had given their side the best of the series.
The pair added 62 before Imran misjudged the length and top-edged an attempted pull into waiting Shantakumaran Sreesanth’s waiting hands on his follow through.
Sreesanth, in fact, derailed Pakistan’s innings with a wicket in each of his first three overs, sending back Imran, Kamran (caught at long-leg) and Shoaib Malik (held in the gully) in the space of 14 balls. Inzamamul Haq looked rusty in his brief stay of 21 runs before Powar caught him in front of the stumps sweep across the line.
Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan resurrected Pakistan’s faltering innings by adding together 95 in 110 balls. Yousuf holed out to Zaheer at deep mid-wicket off Ajit Agarkar after making 67 off 85 deliveries.
Younis marshalled the remaining batting and finished on an unbeaten 74 off 79 balls, striking three fours and two consecutive sixes off Zaheer.
Sreesanth, who did get the new ball on Sunday, returned to have Sami for his fourth wicket...
Pakistan’s series defeat was their heaviest against India who won 4-1 in the second edition of three Sahara Cup series in Toronto (Canada) in 1997.
Scoreboard
Pakistan
Kamran Akmal c Singh b Sreesanth 25
Imran Farhat c and b Sreesanth 24
Shoaib Malik c Raina b Sreesanth 12
Mohammad Yousuf c Zaheer b Agarkar 67
Inzamamul Haq lbw b Powar 21
Younis Khan not out 74
Abdul Razzaq c Dravid b Singh 24
Yasir Arafat b Zaheer 10
Mohammad Sami c Kaif b Sreesanth 2
Rao Iftikhar not out 6
Extras: (lb5, nb2, w14) 21
Total: (for eight wickets) 286
Fall of wkts: 1-62, 2-71, 3-77, 4-115, 5-210, 6-239, 7-261, 8-264.
Bowling: Zaheer 10-0-64-1, Agarkar 10-1-60-1, Sreesanth 10-1-58-4, Singh 10-1-50-1, Powar 10-0-49-1
India
G. Gambhir c Akmal b Iftikhar 38
R. Dravid c Malik b Sami 50
Y. Singh not out 107
M. Dhoni not out 77
Extras: (lb8, w7) 15
Total: (for two wkts, 46.5 overs) 287
Fall of wkts: 1-69, 2-141.
Bowling: Sami 8.5-0-65-1, Asif 9-0-48-0, Iftikhar 10-0-44-1, Arafat 8-0-51-0, Malik 3-0-22-0, Razzaq 8-0-49-0
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