Younis takes Pak to a big win

Pakistan batted with supreme authority in a must-win game, and beat India by eight wickets chasing 309, and avenged the thrashing India had given them in the previous game, where they chased 300 runs in just 42 overs.

The home team needed to win this Karachi fixture by a big margin to stay alive in the Asia Cup. Thanks to Younis Khan's 123 not out - his second century against India in a month - Pakistan needed just 45.3 overs to win.

It was advantage India going into the game. Pakistan lost the services of their captain Shoaib Malik, who collapsed from exhaustion in a pre-match fitness test and had to be rested.

India elected to bat and blazed away. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag added 88 in just 10.3 overs, while fifties from skipper MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma, who has been out of touch, and a quick 38 from Irfan Pathan, took India past 300.

Pakistan's openers, Salman Butt and Nasir Jamshed, batted like men possessed and took Pakistan to 65 runs in the first eight overs.

Butt, who has five ODI centuries against India, was the first to go. He was run out for 36.

Jamshed attacked India's seam bowlers and reached 53 from 43 balls before he retired hurt due to exhaustion.

Piyush Chawla has been targeted repeatedly by Pakistan's batsmen and today was no different. Today, he switched to bowling around the wicket - something Anil Kumble has tried against Pakistan and had moderate success - and managed to bowl Mohammad Yousuf around his legs.

Thereon, the stand-in captain Misbah-ul Haq stitched a 144-run partnership in just 20.2 overs with Younis and took Pakistan home.

Mid-innings collapse cost India vital runs

After the opening partnership, India had a mini collapse, where they lost four quick wickets to the seam bowling of Abdur Rauf and Rao Iftikhar, who took 3-51.

Gambhir made 35 (32 balls, 4x4) before holing out to cover to give Iftikhar his first wicket.

Sehwag went four balls later, caught behind off Rauf for 49 (33 balls, 6x4, 2x6).

In the same over, Suresh Raina, who had come out one-down, played a rash shot to deep mid wicket and was out for 1.

Yuvraj Singh began to repair the innings with skipper M.S. Dhoni but he edged one behind to Sarfraz Ahmed, who dived to his left to take an acrobatic catch.

Rohit got out trying to hook Iftikhar and top-edged a catch to Rauf.

Yusuf Pathan, sent ahead of his more experienced brother Irfan, made 0 before he holed out to long off trying to up the run rate.

Dhoni, who batted 96 minutes in sapping heat, finally played a tired shot in the penultimate over. His runs (96 balls, 4x4) had been made with some furious running