India A squeeze home
An unbeaten half-century from Yalaka Venugopal Rao, backed up by 70 from Mahendra Dhoni, guided India A home against Pakistan A after a tight finish in the third one-dayer of the triangular tournament in Kenya
Wisden Cricinfo staff
14-Aug-2004
India A 223 for 6 (Venugopal Rao 64*, Dhoni 70) beat Pakistan A 222 for 9 (Naved Latif 50) by four wickets at Ruaraka Sports Club Ground, Nairobi
Scorecard
Scorecard
An unbeaten half-century from Yalaka Venugopal Rao, backed up by 70 from Mahendra Dhoni, guided India A home against Pakistan A after a tight finish in the third one-dayer of the triangular tournament in Kenya. Set 223 to win by Pakistan, India squeaked home in the final over with two balls to spare.
Earlier, seven of Pakistan's top eight made it to double figures, but only Naved Ashraf (44), Naved Latif (50), and Riaz Afridi (26*) capitalised on their starts. Amit Bhandari and Aavishkar Salvi ripped through the top and bottom order of Pakistan, but both were expensive and it was left to Sairaj Bahutule and Shib Paul to keep the run-rate down.
In reply, India were in some trouble at 70 for 3 when Sridharan Sriram was caught behind by Kamran Akmal off the bowling of Junaid Zia. Venugopal Rao and Dhoni fought back with a 102-run partnership which took the game away from Pakistan. Dhoni eventually fell to Qaiser Abbas (172 for 5), and Pakistan kept themselves in the game with two quick wickets in the closing overs, when Ambati Rayudu (25) and Bahutule were caught behind (216 for 6).
However, Venugopal Rao (64*) and Romesh Powar (2*) kept their heads, hitting the winning runs to give India A their first win of the triangular.