Dubai: India restricted Pakistani to a manageable total in their Group A Champions Trophy clash, bowling out their arch rivals for 241 here on Sunday.
After Rohit Sharma had lost yet another ODI toss, Pakistan got off to a steady start with Babar Azam stroking the ball fluently. Hardik Pandya effected the first breakthrough by inducing an edge off Babar’s bat to be caught behind by KL Rahul. Without any addition to the score, it became 47/2 as the other opener Imam-ul Haq was run out by brilliant direct throw by Axar Patel.
Thereafter, Pakistan enjoyed their best phase of the innings thanks to a 104-run partnership between Saud Shakeel (62) and Rizwan (46) for the third wicket.
As the Pakistanis, going at around 4.5 runs an over, looked to up the tempo, the Indian spinners came into play. Axar cleaned up Rizwan as he went for a legside heave, and Pandya had Shakeel holing out to deep midwicket.
Left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav then bamboozled the lower middle order with a three-wicket burst to cut short Pakistan’s hopes of reaching a total in excess of 250.
Kuldeep completed 300 wickets in international matches – 176 in ODIs, 69 in T20Is and 56 in Tests.
Pandya (2/31), Harshit Rana (1/30), Ravindra Jadeja (1/40) and Axar (1/49) chipped in well while two Pakistani batters were run out.
