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Dhoni powers India through |
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Written by Rasesh
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Monday, 13 February 2006 |
 An absolute swashbuckling innings by Dhoni helps India take lead in the 5 match ODI series. The match looked very evenly poised till the Indian powerhouse walked in to the middle with India till needing over 7 runs per over. The Pakistan innings started in complete bizarre fashion, at first Salman Butt got out in the same manner as he did in the previous match nicking one behind to Dhoni off Irfan Pathan. Then were the surprising events, India dropped three chances off Sreesanth in the first 15 overs itself. Shahid Afridi, who was playing with a rib injury, was looking in his normal attacking mood until he was dismissed by Pathan on 19. Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Yousuf too departed with the score on 82/4. Pakistan then on kept loosing wickets consistently and never managed to string a partnership until Abdul Razzaq came to the crease to accompany Shoaib Malik. Shoaib Malik continued his superb form in this ODI series he has scored two nineties but didn’t fail to get to his century this time scoring a very good 108 in quick time. They reached 244 with the loss of seven wickets and it looked that if India would bowl well they could bundle out Pakistan for less than 260. The lower order played well and helped the team to reach 288 and this looked like a competitive target.
With Sehwag absent the onus was on the little master to deliver once again. Gautam gambhir departed early bowled round his legs after the ball getting deflected off his thigh pad. Irfan Pathan soon departed with getting out to an unplayable delivery by Mohammad Asif who was bowling with extreme consistency. Then was probably the most absorbing period of the match with Sachin and Dravid facing the seaming and swinging bowling by Umar Gul and Mohammad Asif. Dravid was supporting Tendulkar very well until he perished almost by getting himself run-out. Then came probably the best part of the match with Yuvraj getting the ball in the middle of the bat almost every delivery. Singh is probably playing the series of his life scoring almost in every match. Tendulkar played the sheet anchor role while Yuvraj was hitting the boundaries almost every over. Just when we thought there was another century from the maestro Sachin gave a catch to Imran Farhat at point and got out on 95. The match was not won at this time and India needed almost 100 runs to win. Kaif soon departed getting caught plum in front off Umar Gul. Dhoni entered in a precarious position but as usual played his natural game and slaughtered the bowling to all corners of the ground. He almost overtook Yuvraj singh as he went into his shell just letting MS Dhoni play his natural game. Dhoni ended the innings with a boundary and finished on 72 off 46 balls. Deservedly MS Dhoni got the man of the match and India taking the lead in the series.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 13 February 2006 )
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