The first Twenty20 between India and Pakistan served as an starter
that only greater than before the desire for more thrilling contests in the
next ten days. It offered everything: dazzling stroke play by Ajinkya Rahane
and Gautam Gambhir early on a amazing collapse by India; Bhuvneshwar Kumar's
swing that sent Pakistan into a tizzy for a brief period animated arguments
between Ishant Sharma and Kamran Akmal; and the equanimity shown by Mohammad
Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, with the latter finishing the contest with a six. The
Ahmedabad crowd will not be happy with anything less than that when the two
teams meet at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera for the second Twenty20 on
Friday.
While Pakistan played their best eleven on Tuesday, India
paid the price of not counting a specialist spinner. Bearing in mind that, the
inclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin seems to be a formality. The offspinner is
expected to replace Ravindra Jadeja, who failed with the bat and go for plenty
with his unidirectional left-arm spin. Even playing eight batsmen didn't work
well for India as they slumped to a paltry total of 133, despite getting a
start of 77 by Rahane and Gambhir, with their seven wickets falling for just 21
runs. In spite of that, India may not make any change in the batting line-up.
It was a debut to remember for Bhuvneshwar as he reminded
everyone of his Uttar Pradesh team-mate Praveen Kumar, who too swings the ball
viciously and was part of the Indian squad until recently. He, along with Ashok
Dinda and Ishant Sharma, had a good game at Bangalore and trio is expected to
play on Friday as well.
Pakistan were clinical in their approach. They were taken to
the cleaners by the Indian openers, but showed a lot of heart to come back. Umar
Gul was hit for 13 runs in his first over but returned with three wickets when
brought back. Saeed Ajmal's spin was the difference between the two sides. He
was canny, displayed all his variations and picked up wickets for not many.
Mohammad Irfan, with his over seven foot frame, made the Indian batsmen hop
with his short-pitched bowling. Hafeez will hope that Tuesday was just one of
those days when his top order didn't click. The onus will be on Nasir Jamshed,
Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal to prove the captain right.
The batsmen-friendly deck at the Motera, which is hosting
its first ever Twenty20, is expected to yield plenty of runs, just like the way
it has done in Tests and ODIs over the years.
Probable elevens:
India: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Virat Kohli, 4
Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Rohit Sharma, 8 R
Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda
Pakistan: 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad
Hafeez (capt), 4 Umar Akmal, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Kamran Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid
Afridi, 8 Sohail Tanvir, 9 Umrar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Mohammad Irfan.
Source : http://cricketnext.in.com/live/news/another-exciting-contest-expected-as-india-seek-victory/70127-13.html
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