The Indian cricket team has been defeated by Pakistan in the first ODI match played at Chennai. Pakistan won the match by 5 wickets. With this victory, Pakistan has taken a lead of 1-0 in the 3-match ODI series.
Because of the overnight rain, the match started a bit late. The Pakistani skipper, Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and decided to field first because of the moisture on the pitch.
The two Pakistani new ball bowlers started in a brilliant way. They swung the ball with pace and made it very hard for the Indian batsmen to protect their wickets. Five wickets were down when the score was only 29 and India was in deep trouble. The Indian captain, MS Dhoni, walked on to the park after the fall of fifth wicket and he stabilized the inning along with Raina. Both these batsmen added 73 runs for the sixth wicket.
Raina was knocked over by Saeed Ajmal at the score of 43. Ravichandran Ashwin came to bat at no. 8 and he batted quite beautifully. He took singles and gave ample strike to MS Dhoni. After the 35th over, Dhoni started playing a few shots. He hit some glorious shots square of the wicket and also played some wonderful drives. He completed his 8th ODI century by hitting Mohammad Irfan over the cover point boundary for a six. He remained unbeaten on 113 and took India to a respectable total of 227. Junaid Khan was the most successful bowler for Pakistan. He took 4 wickets.
Pakistan didn’t have a good start in reply. Mohammad Hafeez was knocked over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the very first ball of the innings. Azhar Ali also departed without making a big contribution and Pakistan was struggling at 21 for 2. But, thereafter, Younis Khan and Nasir Jamshed batted brilliantly and put up a 100-run stand.
Younis got out after completing his fifty, but, Jamshed continued flourishing from the other end. He completed his century and saw his team home with Shoaib Malik. Jamshed and Malik remained unbeaten on 101 and 34 respectively.
Dhoni was declared man of the match for his brilliant hundred.