Sunday, 2 March 2014

India Take on Pakistan in a Do or Die Game





After their defeat to Sri Lanka, India will look to regroup quickly and plug their loopholes as they go into the make or break match against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup on Sunday.

Both teams go into the match on an even keel, a win and one loss each, but the defending champions Pakistan have a slight edge as they have a bonus point in their kitty from their win against associate nation Afghanistan.

For India, it was Virat Kohli's sparkling century that did the job against Bangladesh, while for Pakistan Umar Akmal's timely ton saved them from what could have been an embarrassing loss to Afghanistan.

Failure of Ambati Rayudu (18), Dinesh Karthik (4) and Stuart Binny (0) hurt India badly as Sri Lanka restricted them to 264 for nine.

With Shikhar Dhawan (94) and Kohli (48) giving India the top order push, India were on course for a 300-plus total but with the middle order collapse, the target proved insufficient in the end.

Pakistan, too, face similar batting woes and the onus would be on skipper Misbah-ul-Haq to start fresh after his farcical run out without even facing a ball.

Given the fact that dew plays a role towards the evening, both the teams will be looking to bowl first after winning the toss.With the ongoing tournament experiencing a cold response, the contest between the arch-rivals is expected to raise the spirits.

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