MULTAN, 17 February 2006 — Two young left-arm seamers Irfan Pathan and Rudra Pratap Singh grabbed seven wickets to help India win the fourth limited-overs One-Day International against Pakistan by five wickets. India have now an unassailable 3-1 lead with the last match of the five-game series to be played on Sunday in Karachi.
Singh took four for 40 while Pathan three for 26 as Pakistan slumped to 161 in 41.5 overs.
Chasing an easy target India hammered the required 162 runs in 32.3 overs losing five wickets, helped by an 85-run third wicket stand between skipper Rahul Dravid (59) and Yuvraj Singh (37).
Pakistan, from the word go, looked a team in panic and under stress. When Dravid defeated Inzamam ul-Haq on the spin of the coin, India had practically won the firs round.
The home team made one change in their lineup, including fast bowler Mohammad Sami in place of injured all-rounder Shahid Afridi.
India made no change in the team that won Agencies the third match in Lahore on Monday by five wickets.
India, on the other hand, excelled in all departments of the game. Their seamers bowled well to restrict Pakistan to the lowest total of this series.
But the remarkable improvement was seen in ground fielding and catching. In the Lahore ODI, Indian fielders had floored five catches but yesterday they held as many as eight, apart from some brilliant ground fielding, which strangulated the home team’s strong batting lineup.
Pakistan went on the defensive from the very start. Probably on instructions, it was Kamran Akmal and not Salman Butt who faced the first over from Pathan when Pakistan batted.
Obviously this was a negative approach as Butt, who had been twice out in the last two matches in the first over from Pathan, appeared uncomfortable.
Butt and later Shoaib Malik, played defensively, against their natural aggressive style and paid the price for the change in tactic. The strategy of — consolidation — in the early overs backfired as Pakistan lost four wickets for only 29 runs.
Singh removed Malik (9) and Younis Khan off successive deliveries in his first over and then in his spell dismissed super-sub Imran Farhat (14) and Abdul Razzaq in the space of five deliveries.
India had Pakistan on the ropes by the 13th over when Dravid and Pathan held brilliant diving catches to dismiss Butt and Malik, who had scored 90, 95 and 108 in the last three matches.
It was at this stage that Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam tried to consolidate the innings with a 68-run fifth wicket stand off 77 balls, which ultimately proved to be the last-ditch effort.
Ajit Agarkar ended the partnership when he had Yousuf caught behind by wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar got the prized wicket of Inzamam by trapping him leg before. It was the seventh time that Tendulkar dismissed the Pakistan skipper in ODIs.
Pakistan’s innings folded when Pathan claimed the last two wickets of Sami and Mohammad Asif that left a capacity crowd of home team supporters disappointed.
India’s reply was also marred by two early setbacks. Sami (3-42), dismissed Tendulkar for a duck and then caught Gautam Gambhir off his own bowling to kindle hope among the Pakistan supporters. Sami then trapped Dravid leg before in the 28th over but by that time the match was all over bar shouting.
Suresh Raina pulled part-time leg-spinner Imran Farhat for a boundary to give India their third successive win of the series.
India, which lost the Test series 1-0, successfully chased big totals in the previous two matches after recording seven-wicket and fivewicket victories at Rawalpindi and Lahore while Pakistan won the high-scoring first match at Peshawar by seven runs on Duckworth/Lewis scoring system due to fading light.
New Zealand Edge West Indies in ‘Bowl-Out’ After Tie
AFP adds from Sydney: New Zealand beat the West Indies in a “bowl-out” after their Twenty20 match in Auckland ended in a draw yesterday.
The match was decided by a soccer-style shootout in which the teams took turns bowling at the stumps after both teams made 126 from their 20 overs.
The West Indies missed with all six of their attempts at hitting the stumps. New Zealand were successful with three of their six bowls.
West Indies, batting first, lost seven wickets for 126 with Daren Ganga and captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul both making 26.
New Zealand lost eight wickets in their reply. The Kiwis looked to have the match under control when they raced to 73-2 in the 10th over, only to lose 44-6 in the last 10 overs.
Opener Lou Vincent was the top-scorer with 42 from 37 balls, but the batting collapse left the home team needing 16 off the last over, including a boundary from the last ball, to force the tie.
“Restricting a side to 120 on Eden Park is a very good effort - we got some good things out of that first 20 overs,” captain Stephen Fleming was quoted by the New Zealand Press Association as saying.
