India v Pakistan, 2nd ODI, Mohali, November 8, 2007

Pakistan’s thrilling win over India levels series

MOHALI: Pakistan defeated India by four wickets in a thrilling second One-day International to level the five-match series 1-1 here today (Thursday).

Chasing a difficult target of 322 runs, they achieved it with one ball to spare when Shahid Afridi hit a four on penultimate ball.

The main architects of the victory were experienced Younus Khan and in-form Misbah-ul-Haq. Younus scored 117, his third ODI century and the first against India while Misbah missed his fifty by just one run.

Younus faced 110 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes while Misbah played 44 balls and struck three fours. Both added 102 runs for the fifth wicket.

Among other scorers, opener Salman Butt made 37 while Shahid Afridi was unbeaten on 29 off just 14 balls with three fours and one six. He was well supported by Suhail Tanveer who hit 14 off 10 balls.

Earlier, a 173-run second wicket partnership between star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir helped India amass a huge score of 321 for nine in the allotted 50 overs.

Tendulkar scored 99 and Gambhir made 57 while Shoaib Akhtar captured three wickets and Umer Gul and Suhail Tanveer claimed two wickets each.

Pakistan now have a daunting task of chasing 322 runs to level the five match series 1-1.

Winning the toss, India decided to bat first but lost opener Sourav Ganguly in the very first over of the match when he was bowled by fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for 6 off just three balls.

Then, Gambhir joined Tendulkar and both carried the score to 179 before Tendulkar was caught behind off Umer Gul to miss his 42nd ODI century by just one run.

Pakistan went into the match with Tanvir replacing Abdur Rehman, assigning the spinning duties to Shahid Afridi and captain Shoaib Malik - who went for twelve and ten runs respectively in their first overs - while India decided to include Virender Sehwag in place Murali Karthik, the pitch not expected to favour spin.


Man of The Match: Younis Khan