By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Mohali : It was not the perfect Diwali gift that the Indian cricket team would have hoped for fans as it lost to Pakistan by four wickets in a thrilling encounter in the second One-Day International here Thursday.
Pakistan levelled the five-match ODI series 1-1 by winning the match with just one ball to spare. This was Pakistan’s highest run chase against India.
India chose to bat after winning the toss and posted an imposing score of 321 runs, losing 9 wickets.
Pakistan, which at one time in the middle overs seemed to be losing with the required run rate being over nine runs, finished well towards the end.
Shahid Afridi hit the winning runs. He remained unbeaten on 29 runs from 14 balls and was assisted by Sohail Tanvir with 14 runs from 10 balls.
Man of the Match Younis Khan propelled the Pakistan innings with his 117 runs from just 110 balls. It included nine fours and two sixes. This was his third ODI century.
Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq (49 in 44 balls) had a partnership of 102 runs in 76 balls.
Earlier, an inspired innings of 99 runs in 91 balls (14 fours and one six) by Sachin Tendulkar helped India pose an imposing total, setting a chasing target of 6.44 runs per over.
He was unlucky yet again to get out just when he was set for another century – it would have been his first one at the magnificent Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium. He has got out on 99 runs thrice in recent months since June.
It was Tendulkar, ably supported by Gautam Gambhir (57 runs in 68 balls, 7 fours), who built a good second wicket partnership – the highest ever partnership at this ground (173 runs in 153 balls) – after opener Sourav Ganguly got out on the third ball of the match after scoring just six runs.
The Tendulkar-Gambhir partnership saw 50 runs coming in just five overs, between the 18th and 23rd overs, as India reached 150 runs in just 141 balls.
After Gambhir’s wicket fell in the 28th over with the score at 186, just two overs after Tendulkar’s exit at 99, new batsmen Virender Sehwag (25 runs, 31 balls) and local boy Yuvraj Singh (34 runs, 44 balls) were the only ones to stand up against the Pakistani attack.
The next few batsmen, except an unbeaten cameo of 38 runs from 20 balls (2 fours and 2 sixes) by off-spinner Harbhajan Singh – for whom too was playing on the home team ground, had scores of 4, 0, 7, 38, 9 and 1 – marking a lower order collapse.
Singh started hitting the Pakistani pacemen all over the ground to help India score 321 runs when it seemed that it would just reach 300.
The Pakistani attack was wayward at times with the bowlers conceding 41 extras, including 31 wide balls.
Paceman Shoaib Akhtar, who conceded four wides in his 6th over, ended up being the most economical (10 overs, 1 maiden, 42 runs) and claiming three wickets, including that of Ganguly and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir picked up two wickets each.
Scorecard
Second ODI, Day-night, PCA Stadium
India
Sourav Ganguly b Shoaib Akhtar 6
Sachin Tendulkar c Kamran Akmal b Umar Gul 99
Gautam Gambhir c Shahid Afridi b Umar Gul 57
Virender Sehwag b Shahid Afridi 25
Yuvraj Singh c Umar Gul b Sohail Tanvir 34
M.S. Dhoni c Kamran Akmal b Shoaib Akhtar 4
Robin Uthappa lbw b Sohail Tanvir 0
Irfan Pathan c Mohammad Yousuf b Shoaib Akhtar 7
Harbhajan Singh not out 38
Zaheer Khan run out (Kamran Akmal) 9
R.P. Singh not out 1
Extras (lb 7, w 31, nb 3) 41
Total (9 wickets; 50 overs) 321
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Ganguly, 0.3 ov), 2-179 (Tendulkar, 25.4 ov), 3-186 (Gambhir, 27.3 ov), 4-239 (Sehwag, 36.6 ov), 5-259 (Yuvraj Singh, 39.4 ov), 6-260 (Uthappa, 39.6 ov), 7-266 (Dhoni, 42.1 ov), 8-278 (Pathan, 44.3 ov), 9-311 (Khan, 49.2 ov)
Bowling
Shoaib Akhtar 10 1 42 3 (1nb, 7w)
Umar Gul 10 2 56 2 (4w)
Sohail Tanvir 10 0 56 2 (1nb, 3w)
Iftikhar Anjum 7 0 64 0 (3w)
Shoaib Malik 3 0 31 0 (1nb, 1w)
Shahid Afridi 10 0 65 1 (4w)
Pakistan
Salman Butt b Pathan 37
Kamran Akmal c Yuvraj Singh b Singh 13
Younis Khan b Khan 117
Mohammad Yousuf st Dhoni b Harbhajan Singh 12
Shoaib Malik c Pathan b Harbhajan Singh 25
Misbah-ul-Haq b Singh 49
Shahid Afridi not out 29
Sohail Tanvir not out 14
Extras (lb 9, w 16, nb 1) 26
Total (6 wickets; 49.5 overs) 322
Did not bat Iftikhar Anjum, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul
Fall of wickets: 1-38 (Kamran Akmal, 5.3 ov), 2-81 (Salman Butt, 14.5 ov), 3-105 (Mohammad Yousuf, 22.5 ov), 4-174 (Shoaib Malik, 32.4 ov), 5-276 (Younis Khan, 45.2 ov), 6-283 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 46.4 ov)
Bowling
Zaheer Khan 10 0 70 1 (3w)
R.P. Singh 10 0 59 2 (1nb, 6w)
Irfan Pathan 9.5 0 53 1 (3w)
Sourav Ganguly 9 0 55 0 (2w)
Harbhajan Singh 10 0 65 2 (2w)
Sachin Tendulkar 1 0 11 0
Toss: India, chose to bat first
Umpires: I.J. Gould (England) and S.L. Shastri (India)
TV umpire: A.M. Saheba (India)
Match referee: R.S. Mahanama (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire: R. Subramanian
Result: Pakistan won by four wickets
Man of the Match: Younis Khan