"Asia Cup 2008 :India mauls Pakistan"

KARACHI, Pakistan: Scores Thursday from the Asia Cup match between Pakistan and India at National Stadium:

Pakistan innings

Salman Butt c Raina b Chawla 35

Shoaib Malik retired hurt 125

Younis Khan c Raina b Pathan 59

Mohammad Yousuf run out 30

Misbah-ul-Haq not out 31

Shahid Afridi c Dhoni b Singh 9

Sohail Tanvir not out 3

Extras: (1b, 1lb, 5w) 7

TOTAL: (For 4 wickets) 299

Overs: 50. Batting time: 236 minutes.

Fall of wickets: 1-90, 2-223, 3-261, 4-290.

Did not bat: Fawad Alam, Sarfraz Ahmed, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar.

Bowling: Praveen Kumar 10-0-56-0 (1w), R.P. Singh 10-2-44-1 (1w), Ishant Sharma 10-0-69-0 (3w), Piyush Chawla 7-0-52-1, Yusuf Pathan 9-0-52-1, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-24-0.

India innings

Gautam Gambhir c Misbah b Iftikhar 9

Virender Sehwag c Younis b Afridi 119

Suresh Raina c Alam b Iftikhar 84

Yuvraj Singh c Butt b Tanvir 48

Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 26

Rohit Sharma not out 0

Extras:(1b, 6lb, 7w, 1nb) 15

TOTAL (For 4 wickets) 301

Overs: 42.1. Batting time: 189 minutes.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-210, 3-231, 4-294.

Did not bat: Yusuf Pahan, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, R.P. Singh, Ishant Sharma.

Bowling: Umar Gul 1.2-0-6-0 (1w), Sohail Tanvir 9-0-55-1 (1w), Rao Iftikhar 9.4-0-61-2 (2w), Shahid Afridi 10-0-64-1 (1nb 2w), Fawad Alam 7-0-64-0 (1w), Salman Butt 1-0-13-0, Younis Khan 4.1-0-31-0.

Toss: Pakistan.

Result: India won by six wickets.

Umpires: Tony Hill, New Zealand, and Brian Jerling, South Africa.

TV Umpire: Akhtaruddin, Bangladesh. Match Referee: Alan Hurst, Australia.

With a captain like M.S. Dhoni leading the talented young Indian side, Team India are looking as the favourites to winning this edition of the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

After having a pretty slow start Pakistan managed to put up a respectable total of 299. I say respectable because of the flat track on which they were playing on.

Two things in particular did not help the Pakistanis much. The flat Track and also the absence of fast bowler Umar Gul.

The Indians bowled pretty well throughout the match starting with a good start from the new ball bowlers especially R.P. Singh, who went for a whole lot of runs in the recently concluded IPL. This was then followed by a good batting partnership in the middle overs by skipper Shoaib Malik and Younus Khan.

After the partnership broke there were a couple of decent contributions in the death overs by Mohd. Yousuf and Misbah Ul Hak. Though I must also add that the Indians never really allowed Pakistan some big overs in the end.

Though Pakistan had the runs on the board, they had to get the Indian batsmen early to prevent damage. A spectacular catch by Misbah helped get rid of Gautam Gambhir, the in-form opener for India. But then Suresh Raina, who was given the opportunity to go one down, did not disappoint. He played some magnificent strokes and looked in great touch. He relieved Sehwag off much tension and both of them batted beautifully together. That partnership took the game away from Pakistan and from then. Pakistan had never really recovered. Dhoni and Yuvraj looking good. Dangerous signs for the rest of Asia.