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Pakistan bounce back with big win

Pakistan kept the one-day series against India alive with a resounding 106-run win in Jamshedpur.

Salman Butt struck 101 off 116 balls - his second one-day ton - as Pakistan posted 319-9 after winning the toss.

The opener put on 145 runs for the second wicket with Shoaib Malik, who stroked a classy 75.

India batted poorly and were dismissed in the 42nd over, with Naved-ul-Hasan (6-27) the destroyer as Pakistan clawed back their series deficit to 2-1.

It was left to tailender Irfan Pathan to save face with 64 - his maiden one-day fifty - after the likes of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh fell for single-figure scores on a superb batting pitch.

It was a vastly different story when Pakistan batted, and barring the early loss of Shahid Afridi to Ashish Nehra the visitors always looked comfortable.

Neither Butt nor Malik was threatened after Afridi's departure, but a disciplined attack led by Nehra (3-57) never allowed the run-rate to get out of hand in the first half of the innings.

Although it laid a solid foundation, the second wicket lacked an aggressor, with the 100 partnership coming up in a rather leisurely 120 balls given the ideal conditions.

The innings grew legs, however, when the introduction of part-timers Sehwag and Tendulkar.

The first sixes of the innings came in the 29th and 30th overs courtesy of Malik, but the new approach also brought his downfall when he hooked Sehwag to deep square.

The momentum was maintained by Butt and Inzamam-ul-Haq, who marked his arrival in the middle with an off-driven maximum off Sehwag.

The pair put on 43 in 31 balls before Nehra, back in the attack, removed Inzamam via a leading edge which Pathan pouched at mid-on.

Butt slowed things down as he neared triple figures, eventually getting there with a single and kissing the turf in delight as he did.

His joy was tempered when a calamitous mix-up between he and Yousuf Youhana resulted in the fatigued centurion sacrificing his wicket, ending a fine knock which included 10 boundaries.

Pathan, earlier unimpressive with the new ball, returned in the 44th over for a spell he will want to forget.

Welcomed back by a crunching Abdul Razzaq boundary, the rattled paceman was banished from the attack by umpires after bowling two waist-high full-tosses, leaving him with the inglorious figures of 0-67 from 8.2 overs.

The innings was given a late boost by Youhana's crafty 31-ball 43, which accounted for the lion's share of the rapid 48-run partnership he shared with Razzaq.

But his passing in the 45th over brought about the loss of five wickets for 30 runs, and by the end India's over-rate was so slow the innings break lasted only 18 minutes.

It was clearly not long enough for India to devise a plan of attack, and their chase was off the rails as early as the sixth over when slumped to 20-3.

Each of India's top six fell to catches - starting with Sehwag's flimsy cut shot off Naved which found its way to point.

Tendulkar then edged Sami to slip, but Naved single-handedly ran through the top-order thereafter to reduce India to 66-5 in the 12th over.

Pathan's cathartic knock, which boasted four sixes, amounted to little more than entertainment value with the match over as a contest. Interestingly, Malik made a return with the ball, despite ongoing doubts over the legality of his bowling action.

Naved returned to the attack to take two more wickets and clean up the tail, in the process claiming his first five-wicket haul in 25 appearances.

But more importantly for Pakistan, their hopes of winning the series remain with three matches to play.