T20 World Cup 2012 Live: Pakistan thrashes India in warm up match

Sep 18,2012 - by Mark Jensen 2

The T20 cricket extravaganza begins today

The warm up match between India and Pakistan turned out to be a thriller with ups and downs, but Kamran Akmal ensured that it turned in the favour of his country. India won the toss and elected to bat with Gambhir and Sehwag taking the popping crease. The Pakistani opening bowlers struck fast when Gambhir pulled one back onto his stumps attempting a pull shot off Umar Gul’s bowling.

Sehwag followed his opening partner to the pavilion in the next over as he was caught by Afridi. The rising star of India, Virat Kohli had different intentions as he announced his arrival to the crease with a caressing drive through mid-wicket.

The duo of Kohli-Sharma added 133 runs to the Indian scoreboard before Sharma was castle by Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal. The damage had already been done as Yuvraj Singh took guard in the penultimate over.

India posted a total of 185 for the Pakistani team to chase. The Pakistani openers started well, but fell to the craft of the Indian off-spinner Ashwin as he started adding to his wickets tally. Kamran Akmal walked in at 3 and held fort at one end while wickets fell at the other side of the crease.

Pakistan was reeling at 95 for 5 when Kamran Akmal cut loose and started his blitzkrieg. The elder of the Akmal brothers hit India’s front line bowler, Zaheer Khan for successive sixes in the 15th over. Shoab Malik provided the much needed support to Akmal as they made a mockery of the Indian bowling attack and finished the match with five balls to spare.

In other warm-up matches, England defeated Australia by 9 runs, while New Zealand lost to South Africa by the same margin. The T20 world cup warm up matches are reaching a close with the tournament scheduled to begin today with a Group C match when the hosts, Sri Lanka take on Zimbabwe.

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Tags: World T20

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Mark Jensen
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A Premier League football reporter for Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and all the major clubs within the South East; delivering the latest team news, gossip, speculation and hearsay daily from the English top-flight football division. Follow me online for updates on match fixtures, previews and betting predictions, football feature specials and live commentary.