Dhoni and Sharma guide India to solid total
KARACHI (Reuters) - Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma grafted half centuries to guide India to 308 for seven against Pakistan in their Asia Cup super league match at the National Stadium on Wednesday.
Paceman Rao Iftikhar picked up three wickets but Dhoni (76) and Sharma (58) overcame a top-order slump to put on 112 runs from 139 balls for the fifth wicket.
Dhoni, who came into bat in the 13th over, was out in the penultimate over after hitting a measured 76 from 96 balls with just four boundaries.
India made 77 in the final ten overs with Irfan Pathan hitting an unbeaten 38.
Pakistan, led by Misbah-ul-Haq after Shoaib Malik collapsed with dehydration in a pre-match fitness test, lost the toss but responded well on a good pitch after a quickfire opening stand of 88 by Gautam Gambhir (35) and Virender Sehwag (49).
Iftikhar and Abdur Rauf (2-66) picked up four wickets for 41 runs with three coming in 10 balls to reduce the Indians to 129 for four.
Gambhir drove Iftikhar straight to Shahid Afridi at extra cover after having hit four boundaries in his 32-ball knock.
Two runs later in the 12th over, Rauf had Sehwag caught behind by Sarfraz Ahmed one short of a fifty after the opener had looked in ominous form, striking six fours and two sixes in his 33-ball innings.
The keeper took a fine low catch and five balls later Suresh Raina hooked Rauf straight to Salman Butt at deep square leg, his first failure of the tournament after scoring 301 runs with two centuries.
Yuvraj, after executing some fine drives in his 37, was caught by Sarfraz who took a diving one-handed catch off Iftikhar.
Sharma reached his fourth fifty from 63 balls in the 40th over while Dhoni reached his 21st from 71 balls with only three fours.
Sharma hooked Iftikhar right down Rauf's throat in the 42nd over while in the next over Saeed Ajmal had Yousuf Pathan caught at wide mid-off for a duck.
(Editing by Miles Evans)
