ADELAIDE: Opening the bowling for Pakistan in a World Cup match with India is enough to get any paceman excited. For Sohail Khan, playing his first international since September 2011, that excitement briefly got the better of him on Sunday.

Charging in to bowl in front of a full crowd at the Adelaide Oval and an estimated television audience of a billion people, 10 times more than the Super Bowl, Sohail thought he had struck gold with his first delivery.

He appealed for a leg before against India opener Shikhar Dhawan. When it was turned down, he instinctively asked for a review, before his captain Misbah-ul-Haq ran in and cancelled the appeal, telling his over-excited paceman the ball had hit Dhawan’s bat.

Sohail calmed himself down and proved a thorn in India’s side for the rest of the innings, finishing with career-best figures of 5-55.

Pakistan only took seven wickets and with one coming from a run out, Wahab Riaz was the only bowler apart from Sohail to claim a wicket.

Sohail made the initial breakthrough when he dismissed Rohit Sharma in the eighth over. India regained control after Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina lifted the total to 273-2 with five overs remaining.

With eight wickets in hand, India looked set to get past a total well above 300 but were restricted to 300-7 after Sohail was reintroduced and succeeded in stalling India’s push.

The 30-year-old got rid of Kohli in the 46th over and then Raina in the 48th over and also dismissed Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane in successive balls in the final over.

He was inches away from getting a hat-trick when he beat Mohammed Shami with a yorker that just missed the off stump but his heroics had given his team an outside chance of winning.

It never happened as Pakistan could only manage 224 in reply but for Sohail it was an impressive comeback to the international arena after making just five ODI appearances between 2008 and 2011.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2015

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