 Pakistan beat India in Tri-Series final
14th Jun 2008 23:30 IST
Agencies
Earlier, Pakistan rode on a 205-run second wicket stand between Butt (129) and Younis (108) to amass 315/3.
With Pakistan Cricket Board chief Nasim Ashraf in attendance, Malik's beleaguered side had extra reasons to put up a better show and they decided to take a slow but steady approach, which clearly paid off.
The sedate start proved the lull before the storm and after Butt and Younis laid the perfect foundation for a big score, Misbah-ul-Haq threw his bat to good effect and chipped in with a 33-run cameo off just 21 balls as the side went past the 300-mark.
Indian captain Dhoni used as many as eight bowlers, including Raina, but with little success.
After Malik won the toss and decided to take first strike of the Sher-e-Bangla track, Pakistan decided to shun extravagance and keep enough wickets in hand to provide that late burst.
Butt curbed his natural aggression while Kamran Akmal (15) was straitjacketed with the Indian pacers, especially Praveen Kumar, who bowled with lot of discipline.
With the first nine overs yielding just 29 runs, Akmal decided to break free and hit Irfan Pathan for a four but the pacer had his revenge in the next delivery as he sucked the batsman into tickling one behind the stumps where Dhoni took the catch.
Butt had that fortune of the brave too as Rohit grassed one after the Pakistani had cut hard at a Praveen Kumar delivery while batting on 19.
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