September 15, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 2, 1428

DURBAN, Sept 14: Combining pace, swing and direction, Pakistan’s young pace sensation Mohammad Asif grabbed four wickets in a magnificent display of bowling to restrict arch-rivals India to a modest total in a potentially explosive Twenty20 World Championship clash at Kingsmead on Friday.

Asif’s immaculate 4-18 helped restrict India to 141-9 off the 20 overs after Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik won the toss and elected to field. The seamer held a superb caught and bowled to dismiss left-handed opener Gautam Gambhir for a duck off the third ball and took three more wickets to reduce India to 36-4.Robin Uthappa’s 50 off 38 balls helped India recover, while Irfan Pathan also hit two massive sixes in his 20 while skipper Mahendra Dhoni added 33 off 30 balls.

Pakistan, after beating Scotland, have already qualified for the Super Eights stage of the global event but India needed to avoid a heavy defeat to progress.

Asif’s dismissal of Gambhir vindicated Pakistan’s decision to bowl after winning the toss. He bowled Virender Sehwag in his next over, had Yuvraj Singh caught at mid-on by captain Shoaib Malik in his third over and finished by bowling Dinesh Karthik in his final over.Uthappa hit Yasir Arafat for two magnificent sixes to the delight of the India fans in the packed Kingsmead stands.

But Sohail Tanvir had Uthappa caught behind soon after to leave the onus on Dhoni.

Left-hander Irfan Pathan hit Shahid Afridi’s spin on to the roof of the main stand and struck another booming six off the next delivery, before Afridi bowled him for 20 off 15 balls in a three-ball spell which encapsulated all the excitement of Twenty20 cricket.

A third, brief rain delay interrupted the thrilling entertainment just as Dhoni seemed to be getting into his stride.

Afridi bowled Harbhajan Singh almost immediately after the resumption and Umar Gul dismissed Dhoni when the Indian captain mistimed a slower delivery high into the floodlit sky.

Ajit Agarkar’s 14 at the death helped India push up the total and should do enough to ensure their run-rate remains high enough to eliminate Scotland even if they lose the first ever Twenty20 encounter against Pakistan, their traditional rivals.

India have to avoid losing heavily in order to progress to the Super Eights. Pakistan had already sealed their place with a 51-run win over Scotland, while India’s match against the same opposition was washed out.

The Indians made no changes to the XI that was pencilled in for the Scotland game, while Pakistan brought in the allrounder Sohail Tanvir, who replaced Shoaib Akhtar in the squad, for Mohammad Hafeez.

Scoreboard

INDIA

G. Gambhir c & b Asif 0

V. Sehwag b Asif 5

R.V. Uthappa c Kamran b Tanvir 50

Yuvraj Singh c Shoaib b Asif 1

K.D. Karthik b Asif 11

M.S. Dhoni c Younis b Yasir 33

I.K. Pathan b Afridi 20

Harbhajan Singh b Afridi 1

A.B. Agarkar run out (Kamran) 14

S. Sreesanth not out 1

EXTRAS: (LB-2, W-3) 5

TOTAL: (for nine wkts; 20 overs) 141

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-9, 3-19, 4-36, 5-82, 6-111, 7-123, 8-138, 9-141.

BOWLING: Asif 4-0-18-4 (W1); Umar Gul 4 0 27 0 (W1); Yasir 4-0- 39-1; Sohail 4- 0-18- 1(W1); Afridi 4-0-37-2.

PAKISTAN

Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat, Sohail Tanvir.

Umpires: BR Doctrove (West Indies) and SJA Taufel (Australia)

TV umpire: SJ Davis (Australia)

Match referee: MJ Procter

Reserve umpire: BG Jerling.

—Agencies