RAWALPINDI, 12 February 2006 — India won the second One-Day International here yesterday with convincing ease, defeating Pakistan by seven wickets and 6.5 overs to spare. The two teams are now level at 1-1 in the five-match series. Pakistan had won the first ODI in Peshawar on Monday.
The architects of India’s authoritative victory were Sachin Tendulkar (42) and Virender Sehwag (67) who gave their team a 105-run opening stand. Dashing left-hander Yuvraj Singh smashed an unbeaten 82 and added 118-run with his captain, Rahul Dravid (56) for the third wicket as India cruised to a facile victory in the 44th over of the match.
Earlier, batting first after winning the toss for the second time in this series, Pakistan made 265 all out in 49.2 overs, setting a rather achievable target of 266 runs for India.
Inzamam ul-Haq’s decision to bat first came as a surprise on a wicket, which was expected to help the seamers in the first hour of the day. When the home team lost both openers for just 43 runs, the decision to bat first had all but backfired. The Indians showed marked improvement in all departments of the game yesterday compared to their performance in the first one-dayer on Monday last. On the other hand, Pakistan’s batsmen looked off color, their bowling lacked venom and thrust and the fielding was sloppy. Pakistan, without the services of their main strike bowler Shoaib Akhtar due to an ankle injury, failed to get the early breakthrough as Sehwag hit 10 fours and a six and with Tendulkar, scored at over 6 runs per over to give India a commanding start.
Tendulkar, who initially played rather subdued innings, hit eight boundaries before edging Abdul Razzaq to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal. India’s first wicket fell at 105.
The second breakthrough for Pakistan came when Sehwag was run out after he failed to beat a direct hit on the stumps as he attempted a third run. The second wicket fell at 123.
But departure of the openers did not deter Dravid and Yuvraj who batted solidly and took their team to within 25 runs of victory with a 118-run third wicket stand. Dravid, who was India’s third batsman to be out gave a return catch to Shoaib Malik. He hit five boundaries in his 56. India took only 31.2 overs to post 200 of the innings and by that time the match was virtually over with 66 runs needed from 18.4 overs and eight wickets intact.
Pakistan owed their score of 265 to a brilliant 95 by Malik and a fighting 81 by Younis Khan who added 102 runs for the fifth wicket to lift their team from a precarious 68-4.
Pathan, who looked sharper than the previous match, removed Salman Butt (0) and Akmal (14) in a very effective opening spell of seven overs to jolt Pakistan early on in the innings. Malik, who scored 90 in the first match at Peshawar, was again unlucky to miss his century when he ran himself out after smashing 13 boundaries. The loss of Mohammad Yousuf (1) and captain Inzamam (8) by the 14th over had put the home team under sever pressure.
Younis, who had scored 553 runs in the three-Test series against India last month which Pakistan won 1-0, smashed nine boundaries in his 81 before miscuing a drive straight to Mohammad Kaif off Ajit Agarkar in the 47th over. Shahid Afridi (18) hit a six and two before he miscued a drive off Pathan who finished as the most successful of Indian bowlers with 3-43. Agarkar returned the figures of 2 for 52 and Zaheer Khan got one for 53.
Abdul Razzaq also disappointed the crowd as well his team as he could score only 14 as Pakistan lost their last five wickets for 61 runs to be bowled out in 49.2 overs.
