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Malik, Hafeez lift Pakistan

Shoaib Malik and captain Mohammad Hafeez hit brilliant half centuries to give Pakistan a thrilling five-wicket win over India in the first T20 International on Tuesday.

Chasing a modest target of 134, Pakistan were struggling at 3/12 after three overs as Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was making his debut, swung the new ball both ways and sent back openers Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad and number four Umar Akmal.

Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez plays a shot during the first T20 match against India on Tuesday. — PTI

But Malik (57 not out) and Hafeez (61) batted sensibly against the pacers and later launched a sensational counter attack. Although Hafeez got out eventually, Malik remained in control and his last-over six off Ravindra Jadeja clinched the win for the visitors.

“It is a great effort, we wanted to do well at the start of the series,” Hafeez said at the presentation ceremony. Indian batting suffered a sensational collapse as they were restricted for a paltry 133 for nine.

Put into bat, Indian openers Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir made a solid start putting on 77 for the first wicket but everything went haywire from then on as they lost nine wickets for an addition of 47 runs.

Such was the plight of Indian batting that save Gambhir who scored 43 and Rahane who smashed 42 off 31 balls, all the other frontline batsmen failed miserably. Only Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina managed double-figure scores with contributions of 10 runs each.

While Pakistan bowlers led by off-spinner Saeed Ajmal did a splendid job in the back 10, the Indian batsmen showed lack of application and their running between the wickets was also pretty poor. Umar Gul was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers grabbing three for 21 while Ajmal chipped in with two for 25.