Pakistan smashes India in WT20 warm-up game

Kamran Akmal smashed a blistering unbeaten 92 as Pakistan dented arch-rival India's confidence ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 with a thrilling five-wicket win in their last warm-up game on Monday.

The Pakistan wicket-kipper smashed six sixes and five fours in his 50-ball knock. Shoaib Malik gave him company by smashing unbeaten 37 runs off 18 balls with two sixes and two fours. Mohammad Hafeez scored 38 off 29 balls.

Kamran welcomed Harbhajan with a six over mid-off off the spinner's first delivery and then hit Yuvraj Singh for two boundaries in the next over.Harbhajan Singh was once again at the receiving end as the Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman smashed the Indian for two more fours in his next over.

India made 185 runs at the loss of three wickets. But the brilliant duo of Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik leads Pakistan to a fine win.India’s Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh remained not out at the end of the first innings with 75 and 4 runs respectively. India had a run-rate of 9.25 runs per over.

Detail of both teams,

India:M S Dhoni (captain/wicket-keeper), Gautam Gambhir, Ravichandran Ashwin, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Ashok Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez (captain), Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), Mohammad Sami, Nasir Jamshed, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat.

Both India and Pakistan are placed in two different groups, i.e, Group A and D respectively. The only way these two neighbours can play each other in the tournament is if India finish first in Group A and Pakistan finish second in Group D, or, if India finish second in Group A and Pakistan finish first in Group D. If none of these permutations materializes then today's match is all we have to enjoy the mother of all battles.