SK Flashback: When India edged past Pakistan in a last over thriller in Dambulla

Harbhajan Singh celebrates a memorable victory

The speciality of an India versus Pakistan contest is that it generates an electrifying buzz even before the commencement of the match. At times, the clash lives up to the hype with a thrilling finish, but sometimes the game turns out to be one-sided in favour of either side.

The 2010 Asia Cup clash between India and Pakistan in Dambulla saw both rivals fight tooth and nail till the very end. However, it was the Indian cricket team who came out trumps in the end by defeating Pakistan by three wickets in the Day/Night match.

Pakistan fall away after a handsome start

Salman Butt looked in fine touch at the top

On a bright and sunny afternoon, Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan skipper won the toss and elected to bat first on a decent batting deck. The Indian bowlers had to toil hard for their first wicket as Salman Butt and Imran Farhat kept the scoreboard ticking by picking up the singles and hitting the odd boundary.

After Harbhajan Singh struck first blood by snapping Farhat, Shoaib Malik joined Butt for yet another handy partnership. Nevertheless, Zaheer Khan hit the corridor of uncertainty and castled an ominous looking Shoaib Malik. Things turned from bad to worse for Pakistan soon when Butt was caught short of his crease courtesy quick reflexes by Ravindra Jadeja off his own bowling.

With wickets in back-to-back overs, Pakistan found themselves in a spot of bother as two new batsmen were at the crease. They kept on losing wickets at regular intervals because of which they couldn’t garner any sort of momentum during the remainder of their innings.

Kamran Akmal came in at the fall of the fifth wicket and shepherded the innings to a respectable target of 267 as Pakistan failed to play out the 50 overs, falling short by three deliveries. Shahid Afridi’s quick-fire knock also helped the cause for Pakistan.

The Indian bowlers, especially Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan, bowled exceptionally well in the death overs to stem the run flow by churning out wickets whenever a partnership looked to take the game away from India.