Bangalore: Pakistan beat India by five wickets in their first Twenty20 on Tuesday at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.
Mohammad Hafeez, who was declared the man of the match, and Shoaib Malik gave Pakistan a 106-run stand after the winners lost early three wickets.
Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal were back to the pavilion when the tourists were 12 in three overs.
Hafeez was caught by Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Ishant Sharma’s delivery after having scored 61 off 44 with the help of six fours and two sixes.
But Malik was determined to take the match to the end and played the winning shot—a six. He scored 57 runs off 50.
Batting earlier, India got to a blistering start with Ajinkya Rahane scoring 42 runs on 31 balls and Gautum Gambhi 43 on 41.
Other Indian batsmen failed to capitalise the start and the hosts only managed to score 25 more runs in the last five overs at the expense of six wockets.
Pakistani bowlers bowled well to restrict their opponents to a moderate target.
Tall fast bowler, Mohammad Irfan, created difficulties through his long arm action and took one wicket in his four over spell.
Umar Gul was the pick of the bowler with three wickets in the match. Saeed Ajmal took two wickets and Shahid Afridi sent one Indian player to the pavilion.
Teams
India: G Gambhir, AM Rahane, V Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, SK Raina, RG Sharma, MS Dhoni, RA Jadeja, B Kumar, I Sharma, AB Dinda
Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan
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