What a hair raising match it was - the third and last ODI between Pakistan and India at Feroz Shah Kotla- Delhi Sunday today.
Saeed Ajmal celebrates his 5th Indian wicket
India which were all back in the pavilion for 167, were mercilessly ousted one by one by Saeed Ajmal for he took 5 wickets for his career best 5/24 - an improvement of his 5/43 earlier record. Saeed Ajmal was joined by Irfan who took for 28, beside one each by Gul, Junaid and Hafeez. None of the Indian batsmen crossed 40s, while the openers crumbled even under 20s.
India lost its openers one after the other at 19 (Rahane), 29(Ghambir), 37 (Kohli) and 63 (Yuvraj). This left Dhoni once again at the helms of the affiar who added valuable 36 before succumbing to Umer Gul.
Coming to bat Pakistan lost Kamran Akmal for duck when the score was 3. That was a setback to start a match. Younis too went back for a paltry six runs. It was Nasir again who added 34 but was unlucky for an lbw. Misbah for a change played responsibly and added 39. Umer Akmal joined hands with Hafeez and scored 25, but Hafeez this time played rather slow which in fact resulted into a 10 runs defeat.
Sharma (3/36) followed by Kumar (2/31) and Ashwin (2/47) proved too fatal for Pakistan and restricted them to 10 runs short of the whitewash they feared the most at the hands of Pakistan right in their own country.
Dhoni was adjudged as the man of the match for standing put at a critical juncture when all leading batsmen had gone back. But like Dhoni was given man of the match even when India lost, it would have been much better to honour Saeed Ajmal for his devastating 5-24 bowling as the man of the match. Nasir Jamshed was declared as the man of the series for his superb batting in all the three ODIs.
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