Nasir Jamshed scored his second ODI century to guide Pakistan to six-wicket win
Nasir Jamshed hit a sagacious unbeaten ton as Pakistan crushed India by six wickets in the first one-day international at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai on claim 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
The dashing southpaw hit 101 off 136 balls and shared a 111-run third-wicket stand with Younis Khan (58) as Pakistan overhauled the 228-run target with 11 balls to spare.
Earlier, recovering from 5-29 thanks to a composure ton by skipper MS Dhoni, India posted the total of 227-6.
Struggling against the Indian pace attack, Pakistan were slumped to 2-21 inside 11 overs following the cheap dismissal of Mohammad Hafeez (0) and Azhar Ali (9) before Nasir Jamshed and Younis launched a strong recovery and steadied the innings with their sagacious stroke-play.
The pair concentrated largely on the rotation of strike but propelled the ball past rope upon getting the loose deliveries. The century partnership between the two ended with the dismissal of veteran batsman, who spooned catch to Ravichandran Ashwin off pacer Ashok Dinda after hitting three boundaries and a six in his 60-ball knock.
Dauntless Nasir Jamshed continued to accelerate the flow of runs on scoreboard in the company of skipper Misbah-ul-Haq, who was bowled out off Ishant Sharma after scoring 16 off 24 balls.
This time Nasir Jamshed, who was dropped by Yuvraj Singh when on 68 off Dinda, found another able ally in Shoaib Malik (34 not out) and cracking five boundaries and a six, brought up his second one-day century.
Malik hit the boundary past rope, pulling the ball off Dinda’s short-length delivery to take the hosts past target.
Earlier, seamer Junaid Khan justified skipper Misbah’s decision to bowl first and broke the back of Indian batting line with back-to-back outbursts.
He triggered the collapse by uprooting the stumps of Virender Sehwag (4) before seven-foot-tall seamer Mohammad Irfan did the same with Gautam Gambhir to register his first one-day international wicket.
Juniad struck drastically in the next over and plunked the stumps of Virat Kohli (0), Yuvraj Singh (2) in two balls before having Rohit Sharma (4), caught by Hafeez, in the 10th over.
With half-team downing for just 29 runs, India were in tatters to be dismissed for a humiliating total but skipper Dhoni and Raina emerged as vindicators and shared 73 runs for the sixth-wicket to ensure a respectable total.
After Raina, who managed two boundaries in his 88-ball knock, fell to Hafeez in 34th over, Dhoni teamed up with Ashwin (31 not out) to continue the anticipation towards competitiveness.
The two batsmen plundered 21 runs off penultimate over, bowled by Irfan, with Dhoni scoring much of runs.
Dhoni’s unbeaten 125-ball knock was laced with seven boundaries and three sixes.
The second match between the two sides is scheduled in Kolkata on Thursday.