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And Pakistan Humbles India
-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
India claims to be strongest terror military power of South Asia and is keen to outweigh Asian power China in war fares, while it considers Pakistan as an insignificant Islamic nation, a pawn in the hands of the Western powers, though India makes tall false claims about Pakistan being a terror cross borderist. India has been on lookout for terror allies to weaken Pakistan and other neighbors and ahs clinched a costly nuclear issue with USA to keep Pakistan out of big connections. India has used all available international forums to snub and degrade the Islamic republic, but Pakistan has outsmarted India in cricket. Pakistan made it two wins from two in the Champions Trophy Pakistan compiled 302 for nine with Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf sharing a record fourth-wicket stand after winning the toss and batting before restricting their arch rivals to 248 all out.
As forecast earlier, Pakistan beat India on Sept 26 by 54 runs in their ICC Champions Trophy Group A match on 26 Sept at Centurion and Shoaib Malik who scored 128 runs form 126 balls is in fact the centurion plus. It was a superb performance from Pakistan. The partnership between Yousuf and Malik set up a big total for them but it was never going to be a cake walk. Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf accelerated from 139 for 3 after 31 overs to score 163 in the last 19. The victory led Pakistan to the top of Group A with four points from two matches ahead of Australia on two. India and West Indies have no points. Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik made mockery of the view that middle overs in ODIs are boring and formulaic It was a vintage Pakistan show.
Coming face to face for the first time in close to a year and a half, the two teams matched each other blow for blow for 90 overs, in terms of play both inspirational and ordinary. From 46th over onwards Pakistan lost average one wicket in every over, but that is perfectly Ok, because the idea was to increase the runs past 300 and they have made their best efforts. In their crucial Group A Champions Trophy match against India here on 26 Sept. Pakistan exploded in the second half of their innings with Malik and Mohammad Yousuf, who scored an 88-ball 87, sharing a 206-run stand for the fourth wicket from 188 balls after they were reduced to 65 for three in the 15th over.
Shoaib (128) and Yousuf (87) put on 206 in 193 balls, the biggest stand for any wicket in the Champions Trophy and a fourth-wicket record for Pakistan. The previous record in the competition was 192 for the first wicket, shared by Indians Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly against England in Colombo in 2002 and Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds for West Indies against Bangladesh in Southampton in 2004.Pakistan's previous best for the fourth wicket was an unbroken stand of 198 between Kamran Akmal and Misbah ul-Haq against Australia in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. Shoaib cracked 128 in 126 deliveries, with 16 fours, to record his seventh ODI century. Yousuf's 87 featured seven fours in a classy display of wristy strokemaking. Pakistan eventually cruised to victory after claiming the last five wickets for 43 runs. Naved ul-Hasan, Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal all picked up two wickets. Seventeen-year-old fast bowler Mohammad Aamer also grabbed two for 46 including Sachin Tendulkar for eight.
Intially, Malik looked like going nowhere. Malik was at his dominating best after playing sheet anchor initially. He took 81 balls to score his fifty but later accelerated to reach his hundred off 108 balls hitting 13 fours in the process. The 27-year-old Malik really hit form in the latter stages of his innings, needing just 27 deliveries for his second 50. His score at various stages of the innings read 3 off 16, 10 off 31, and then 34 off 69. Malik became severe and Dhoni’s bowlers struggled too hard to comprehend Pakistani tricks. While Yousuf missed his century by 13 runs, Malik went on to get his first ton since last year's Asia Cup. Four of his seven centuries have come against India, and his average of 52.24 against them is a stark contrast to his 35.27 overall. He also crossed 5000 ODI runs during the innings, 1515 of which have come against his favourite opposition.
Looking forwards to a comprehensive defeat by the increasingly firm team of Pakistan, Indians started off on a bad note as they lost Sachin Tendulkar early. Dravid had kept the chase alive, and despite a regular fall of wickets India needed 67 runs in 49 balls when he was called for a non-existent third and was left stranded. Dhoni’s lbw with 3 runs clearly shifted the win to Pakistan’s court. Pakistan didn't really suffer for bowling too many extras and eventually managed to beat arch rivals in the Champions Trophy again.
So in the end cricket world has seen a comprehensive victory for the World Twenty20 champions. Brilliant victory from Pakistan, who have thoroughly outclassed their Indian rivals in every department. This is again a collective effort by Pakistani team making Indian batsmen struggle and toil fruitlessly. Unsurprisingly, Shoaib Malik, led a late explosion with a scintillating century to propel Pakistan to a challenging 302, is named man of the match. Interesting admission from MS Dhoni, who said he has never seen so many runs scored from the cut shot in a match.
Indian media are totallly disillusioned that Pakistan won the crucial match yesterday, but they are dead silent now becasue Pakistan thrashed Hindu Inida in full world view. For any sincere commentator, the telling contributions were not only from Mohammad Yousuf plus Shoaib Malik, but also the control and variation of spinners Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal. Pakistan is certain to feature in the last four. Indian as well as pro-India commentators stayed extremely tensed throughout match as Pakistan was increasingly seen as the winners. Pakistani pace bowlers gave away 31 runs in no-balls and free hits during India's chase. Yet they opportunistically converted two run-out chances to end up comfortable winners of a contest that stayed tense for at least 40 overs of the second innings.
Pakistan is now on way to defeat Australia shortly. Pakistan skipper Younus Khan said he next aim is to keep a clean record in the tournament. Since the team stands unified force Pakistan is trying to plan immediate strategies to win the ICC Trophy. All concentrations are needed for the finals. No point in admonishing later for leaving the job unfinished! Unfortunately, Pakistanis are very fond of talking to Indian media exposoing their weaknesses but Inidnameida are just a part of Indian regime, ill-focused on Pakistan, though Islamabad is trying to dilute the Islamic tenets as advised by the European donors and kill Muslims by calling them terrorists. Pakistan has all chances to win the Trophy. India cannot say now that Pakistan is not doing enough!
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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
Specialist on State Terrorism
Independent Researcher in International Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India, a fraud and terror nation in South Asia.
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