India open World T20 in style

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India have cruised to a comfortable seven-wicket win against traditional rivals Pakistan with nine balls to spare in both sides’ first match of the World T20 tournament in Bangladesh.

India skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first, opening with off-spinner Ravi Ashwin and in a possible sign of things to come throughout this tournament, proceeded to use spin for 13 of the 20 overs.

It worked. 

Pakistan were restricted to 7-130 from their 20 overs, as leg-spinner Amit Mishra took the bowling honours with 2-22 from four overs.

At 1-44 in the eighth over, the Pakistani innings had been given a solid foundation by Ahmed Shehzad (22 off 17) and captain Mohammad Hafeez (15 off 22), but it was Ravindra Jadeja who struck in his first over with the key wicket of Hafeez.

From that point, Pakistan failed to mount a serious resurgence, Umar Akmal top-scoring with 33.

Mishra bowled beautifully, tempting Shehzad from his crease with a well-flighted leg-break and allowing Dhoni to neatly complete the stumping.

He then picked up the wicket of Shoaib Malik as Pakistan’s innings continued to crumble, Shoaib Masqood prolonging hope with a quickfire 21 from 11 balls to push the score to 130 – a total considered at the mid-innings break to be below par, yet potentially still competitive.

Pakistan also opted for a spinner to begin their innings, a not uncommon role for skipper Hafeez, but it was to no avail, with India’s opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan (30 off 28) and Rohit Sharma (24 off 21) putting on 54 for the first wicket in eight overs.

Umar Gul broke the stand with the wicket of Dhawan, which triggered a mini-collapse of three wickets for 11 runs, including dangerman Yuvraj Singh for a solitary run.

Yet it proved merely a hiccup for the Indians, who reeled in the target of 131 easily, thanks largely to the in-form Suresh Raina (35 off 28) and master chaser Virat Kohli (36 off 32), who picked up the pace after initially settling at the crease to signal an ominous warning to their rivals well ahead of the business end of the tournament.

Pakistan now face Australia in Mirpur on Sunday, knowing that defeat will almost certainly draw curtains on their tournament before it has even kicked into gear.