India win thriller to avoid whitewash

Cricket365
January 29, 2013

India pulled off an astounding victory in freezing conditions in Delhi on Sunday as they beat Pakistan by 10 runs in the third ODI to avoid a series whitewash.

Pakistan only needed to get 168 to win in their 50 overs after India's batsmen failed yet again, but the hosts pulled out all the stops and Pakistan were all out for 157 with seven balls to spare at the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium.

While Pakistan lost regular wickets in their knock, they still seemed to be heading to a 3-0 series win, but the tight bowling of Ravindra Jadeja and three wickets of Ishant Sharma ensured a thrilling finale. At one stage Pakistan needed 25 runs off 40 balls, but a flurry of dot deliveries prevented the win.

India's players celebrated in the sub-zero conditions as though they had won the World Cup rather than having lost the series 2-1, and they will need to sober up quickly as the five-match series against England looms later this month.

In the first innings, Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal took five wickets for 24 runs, removing the middle order and tail after the fast bowlers did the job with the new ball early on. India once again lost their top three batsmen within the first 10 overs, and couldn't recover from there.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the top scorer for the hosts, making 36 in 55 balls and hitting three massive sixes. While he was in the middle it looked like India could put up a decent target, but once he was dismissed by Umar Gul with the score on 131, it was all over.

Ajmal took two wickets in one over to get rid of Suresh Raina and Ravi Ashwin, the former having made 31 as he tried to steady the innings. But the early loss of openers Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir to Mohammad Irfan made sure the knock was unstable throughout.

The highest partnership for India was 48, between Raina and Dhoni in the middle overs, but none of the other batsmen could piece together decent shot selections and they were all out with nearly seven overs to spare.

Pakistan's innings started at snail's pace and never picked up, but they didn't need to do anything extravagant as the target was so small. After 11 over they had only scored 22 runs, though they had already lost Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan.

Nasir Jamshed and Misbah-ul-Haq then seemed to push the side towards a win, taking the score to 61 before Jamshed departed for 34 to Ashwin. Misbah and Umar Akmal then continued on past the 100 mark, as Jadeja proved a tricky customer and went at less that two to the over.

Pakistan then lost their final six wickets for just 44 runs as Ishant removed the heart of the middle order. Mohammad Hafeez tried to secure the win and almost did so, hitting Ishant for two boundaries in the 48th over, but he could not finish the job and was the final man to fall, caught at long on for 21.