Last Match Win Pakistan ICC Trophy-200
Pakistan 302 for 9 (Malik 128, Yousuf 87, Nehra 4-55) beat India 248 (Dravid 76, Gambhir 57, Ajmal 2-31, Afridi 2-39) by 54 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHow they were out.
It was a vintage Pakistan show. The near relic formula of doubling the 30-over score worked for them, as Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf accelerated from 139 for 3 after 31 overs to score 163 in the last 19. Then the ugly side of Pakistan showed up: their pace bowlers gave away 33 runs in no-balls and free hits to let India in the run-chase. Yet they opportunistically pounced on two run-outs to end up comfortable winners in a chase that stayed tense for at least 40 overs.
Malik and Mohammad Yousuf (87), who put on 206 together, built up their score gradually before cutting loose in the last 15 overs to rack up 302-9.
Rahul Dravid took 103 balls to reach 76 and when he was seventh out in the 42nd over, India quickly lost their way.
They were all out for 248 with five overs and one ball remaining.
With such a strong net run-rate, it would take a heavy loss to Australia, and two other results going against them, to prevent Pakistan, the World Twenty20 champions, making the semi-finals.
India's key match could be against Australia, with the winner of that likely to take the other semi-final berth from Group A.
A critical difference between the two sides was the effectiveness of each set of spinners.
Pakistan call heads and Younis Khan wins the toss, and decides to bat. The Pakistan fans over to my right, go bonkers. Nothing like the smell of a toss early in the early afternoon to get a crowd going.
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