Umar Gul celebrates Virender Sehwag’s dismissal
Merciless Pakistan crushed India by 85 runs in the second one-day international at Eden Gardens Kolkata on Thursday to clinch an assailable 2-0 lead in the three match series.
Riding on Nasir Jamshed’s second successive century and hit 141-run opening stand with Mohammad Hafeez (76), Pakistan posted a competitive total of 250 and shot India out for 165 in 48 overs.
Barring skipper MS Dhoni (54) and opener Virender Sehwag (31) no Indian batsman could succeeded to make impact.
Thanks to Jamshed’s unbeaten century, Pakistan had defeated India by six wickets in the series-opener in Chennai on Sunday.
Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir (11) delivered India a strong 42-run opening stand but Pakistan seamers hit back drastically and crippled the hosts batting-line with back-to-back bursts.
Junaid Khan dealt double blow to India, uprooting the stumps of Gambhir with an exceptional inswinger and edging Virat Kohli (6) to gloveman Kamran Akmal with a clever leg-side delivery.
The hosts had not yet recovered from the double-setback when Gul snared well-set Sehwag leg-before and had Yuvraj Singh (9) caught behind the leave the hosts 4-70.
Struggling against the bamboozling spin attack, Suresh Raina (18) snapped up the tumble of wickets in the company of Dhoni but Hafeez pegged the hosts back again by scalping Raina.
Shoaib Malik extended Indian misery by removing Ravichandran Ashwin, who could manage to score just 3 runs off 22 balls.
With the run-rate mounting over-by-over and wickets toppling like nine pins, the defeat of hosts was on cards but Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja (13) shared sluggish 28 runs to reduce the deficit.
Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal removed Ravindra Jadeja (13), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0) and Ashok Dinda (0) in the same over to put the visitors at the verge of victory before pacer Junaid Khan plunked the stumps of Ishant Sharma (2) to spark the jubilations in the Pakistani nation.
Earlier, Jamshed and Hafeez proved Dhoni’s decision to bowl first after winning the toss and played bold shots all over the park. The pair initially took time to settle down but turned to be hostile after gaining the momentum.
The pair put on 100 runs in exactly 100 balls. It was Pakistan’s first century stand by any opening pair at the Eden.
Ravindra Jadeja eventually gave the much-crucial breakthrough to his side by disturbing the stumps of Hafeez, who hit 10 boundaries in his 78-ball knock, with a magical swinging delivery.
Azhar Ali (2) nightmarish run continued as he was run out following a mix-up with Jamshed.
Wobbled by back-to-back setbacks Pakistan suffered another blow when Younis Khan was adjudged leg-before off part-timer Suresh Raina. In the subsequent over Ashwin scalped skipper Misbah-ul Haq (2) in similar fashion to leave the arch-rivals 4-182.
Jamshed cracked Jadeja a straight boundary to move to 96 before slashing another towards mid-off to bring up his third ODI century, all coming against India.
Studded with a dozen boundaries and two sixes, his brilliant knock eventually came to an end in the 42nd over when he misjudged Jadeja delivery and came out of his crease to go over the top but Dhoni nettled the stumps in the second attempt.
Later Shoaib Malik (24) and Umar Gul (11) stitched up 26 runs for the seventh wicket to ensure a 250-run total for Pakistan. Ishant Sharma scalped the pair in his successive overs and had Mohammad Irfan in the penultimate over to wrap the innings up.
The third and final ODI between the two countries will be played at Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi on Sunday.
