Rayudu also kept the good scoring rate as he took 55 balls to reach his second ODI fifty. He smacked three fours and six during the course of his half-century.
Pakistan spinner Mohammad Hafeez struck to break the half-century stand between Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu and put India on backfoot.
Karthik and Rayudu revived Indian innings with their 52-run partnership. Karthik went for another premeditated sweep that found Saeed Ajmal at short fine leg.
Pakistan pacer Mohammad Talha jolted Indian innings by removing Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane in quick succession.
Rahane was looking to consolidate innings with his 23 off 50 deliveries but Talha's second strike leave India stuttering at 103/4 in 23.2 overs.
Sharma roared back to form as he slammed an impressive half-century after India lost skipper Virat Kohli. But Rohit failed to continue his knock when he mistimed his pull, got a top edge which was caught by Mohammad Hafeez beautifully.
Debutant Talha opened his account in one-dayers with Rohit's dismissal.
Rohit reached his half-century in 44 balls with 7 smashing boundaries and 2 impeccable sixes to his credit.
Before that, pacer Umar Gul gave Pakistan another reason to cheer as he dismissed the dangerous Kohli.
Gul had Kohli (5) caught behind to joggle the Indian innings and break a growing 38-run stand that the Indian skipper had with Rohit Sharma.
India got off to a bad start in their innings as Mohammad Hafeez struck to dismiss opener Shikhar Dhawan (10) early.
Hafeez was successful in catching the left-hander plumb soon after Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and decided to bowl against India.
For Pakistan, Anwar Ali misses this match and Mohammad Talha comes into the side as his replacement. On the other hand, India bring in Amit Mishra for Stuart Binny.
Driven into a corner after their defeat to Sri Lanka, India will look to regroup quickly and plug their loopholes as they go into the make or break match.
With back-to-back victories over Pakistan and India, Sri Lanka have virtually assured themselves of a berth in the final of the Asia Cup, and now it's a two-way battle between the traditional rivals to be the other finalists in the five-nation tournament.
Both teams go into the match on an even keel, a win and one loss each, but the defending champions Pakistan have a slight edge as they have a bonus point in their kitty from their win against associate nation Afghanistan.
India registered a facile victory over hosts Bangladesh in their tournament opener but went down to Sri Lanka by two wickets on Friday. Pakistan were also beaten by a narrow 12-run margin by the same opponents in their opening match of the Asia Cup.
Teams:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.
Pakistan: Sharjeel Khan, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Umar Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Talha, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan.
0 comments:
Post a Comment