Pakistan at last ended their jinx of being defeated at an ICC event by India when they beat their arch-rivals by 48 runs
in the
Champions Trophy at the Centurion. Set a target of 303 runs to win India managed only 254 being bowled out inside 50 overs.
India have only themselves to blame for their first ever defeat at the ICC event at the hands of Pakistan. Batting first Pakistan rode on a great century by Shoaib Malik who made 128 runs in the score and an equally significant contribution of 87 runs by Mohd. Yusuf.
Earlier Ashish Nehra gave India good early breakthroughs by claiming two of the three wickets to fall. At 65 runs Pakistan were 3 down. But then Shoaib Malik and Mohd. Yusuf came in to stitch a double-century stand and take the score past the 300 run mark. Pakistan had no business to score more than 300 runs when they were down and out. But it was the lethargic Indian bowling attack that not only allowed the Pakistanis to set in but also set the Indians such a challenging target of 300+ that they failed to achieve it.
It was only at the start of the 45th over, when the batting powerplay was taken that the Pakistani batsmen lost their wickets and ended the innings at 302/9. It was a good comeback by the Indian bowling though, for at one stage Pakistan looked to go well beyond the 325 run mark.
Tendulkar and
Gambhir started the Indian reply. Gambhir looked more attacking of the two. Tendulkar hit a good boundary through square and could do nothing much then. He was caught behind off the bowling of Aamir. Dravid joined in next and kept up the pace of good scoring with Gambhir. Gambhir was more attacking and scored more briskly than the 'Wall'. The Pakistani bowlers erred on more than one occasion with the front-foot no balls and almost each time Gambhir punished the bowler with a four or a six. But an unfortunate mix up with Dravid and a direct throw to run him out proved very costly for India. Dravid though, held fort for some time and top scored for India.