Virat Kohli floors Pakistan batting efforts

India sizzled their way to a six-wicket win over Pakistan in the fifth match of the ongoing 2012 Asia Cup in Mirpur, Bangladesh. The Men in Blue needed to win in order to keep their final hopes alive which can now only be shattered if Bangladesh beat Srilanka
in the last league game on Tuesday, March 20.

Winning the toss and batting first, Pakistan amassed 329/6 in their allotted 50 overs to leave India with a daunting task in the must-win game. Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed were involved in a record opening stand of 224 runs with both players scoring
centuries against a depleted Indian bowling attack.

Jamshed was the first to depart for 112 off Ravichandran Ashwin after bringing up his first career century. Hafeez soon followed him in the next over for 105. He was LBW to Ashok Dinda. Umar Akmal and Younis Khan added 47 for the third wicket before Akmal
lobbed a catch off Praveen Kumar to Gautam Gambhir for 28.

In the meantime, Khan brought up his half century in no time but got out for 52 off 34 balls to leave the Green Shirts at 323/5. Shahid Afridi fell prior to Younis Khan after failing to smack a boundary in his 15-ball stay. He made 9. Hammad Azam was the
last man to fall in his attempt to accelerate as Pakistan notched up 329 runs.

Kumar and Dinda picked up two wickets each while Irfan Pathan and Ashwin picked up one-wicket apiece.

Needing 330 to win, the world champions got off to a worst possible start. Gambhir was out on the second ball, getting LBW to Hafeez. Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli added 133 for the second wicket before Saeed Ajmal applied his magic and got the little-master
caught in the slips for 52.

Rohit Sharma and Kohli took the score to 305 before Sharma skied a catch to Afridi off Umar Gull for 68. Kohli finally departed for a magnificent 183 off 148 balls which contained 22 fours and one six. Suresh Raina and Mahinder Singh Dhoni applied the finishing
touch as India went on to win by six wickets.

Kohli was rightly declared the Man of the Match. Now the Indians would want Srilanka to beat Bangladesh on Tuesday else the Bengal Tigers will meet Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup on Thursday, March 22.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Mar 19 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry