By Rajesh Kumar, IANS
Guwahati : The following are the highlights of the first India-Pakistan One-day International that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team won by five wickets here Monday:
* After losing four successive games to Pakistan in India — in Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Delhi in 2005 — India registered a convincing win.
* India had last won an ODI against Pakistan in India in Visakhapatnam, by 58 runs on April 5, 2005.
* India’s five-wicket win is their 7th in 22 matches against Pakistan in India.
* India registered their fifth win in eight games in Guwahati.
* After winning six tosses in succession at this venue, an Indian captain lost the toss.
* Sachin Tendulkar, with his 403rd ODI, equalled Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya’s record of playing most games.
* Sachin, with his 393rd innings, surpassed Jayasuriya’s record of 392 games.
* Salman Butt (50 off 57 balls) posted his fifth half-century, but his first against India. Of course, all his three ODI hundreds have been recorded against India.
* Pacer Irfan Pathan claimed his first ODI wicket (Kamran Akmal) against Pakistan in India. In his previous two encounters against Pakistan in Kolkata (10-1-48-0) Nov 13, 2004, and in Jamshedpur (8.2-0-67-0) April 9, 2005, Pathan had gone wicketless. India had lost both games.
* Harbhajan Singh (10-0-29-1) produced his best bowling performance against Pakistan, eclipsing his one for 43 in Kanpur April 15, 2005.
* In terms of economy rate also, Harbhajan (2.90) registered his best bowling performance against Pakistan.
* Mohammad Yousuf, when on 2, completed 1,000 runs against India in 35 ODIs. He is the eighth Pakistani to aggregate 1,000 runs against India.
* Yousuf took his run-aggregate in this calendar year to 842 (average 49.52) in 20 matches, the most by any Pakistani batsman in 2007. He has hit two hundreds and seven fifties this year.
* Yousuf’s 58th fifty is his 9th against India.
* Yousuf’s 83 not out off 88 balls is his second highest score against India, next only to his 100 not out in Dhaka June 3, 2000.
* Shoaib Akhtar played his first game against India in three years. He had last played against India in the BCCI’s Platinum Jubilee match in Kolkata Nov 13, 2004, claiming one for 55 off nine overs.
* Gautam Gambhir registered his highest against Pakistan, eclipsing his 38 at Karachi February 19, 2006.
* Sourav Ganguly (39) is without a half-century in 19 innings against Pakistan. He had last scored a fifty-plus against Pakistan in Adelaide January 25, 2000 – 141 off 144 balls.
* Ganguly became the fourth Indian player to appear in 50 or more games against Pakistan, joining Mohammad Azharuddin (64), Sachin Tendulkar (62) and Rahul Dravid (57).
* Ganguly’s aggregate of 1,190 (avg 47.60) in 29 matches is exceeded only by Australia’s Matthew Hayden (1555 at 62.20 in 29 matches) in 2007.
* Shoaib Akhtar has dismissed Sachin Tendulkar five times in ODIs.
* Mahendra Singh Dhoni (63 off 77 balls) registered his fifth half-century against Pakistan — his 17th overall.
* Dhoni’s innings is his consecutive half-century against Pakistan. In his previous innings against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi April 19, 2006, he had made 59.
* Yuvraj Singh’s 58 off 74 balls is his 31st fifty – his sixth against Pakistan.