Birmingham: Defending champion India put up an all-round show to drub arch-rivals Pakistan by 124 runs via Duckworth-Lewis (DL) method in a rain-marred Group B encounter of the Champions Trophy here on Sunday.
Asked to bat, the Indians rode on a power-packed performance by the top order to post a challenging total of 319/3 in an innings affected by rain twice — and consequently shortened to 48 overs.
Further rain interruptions forced the match officials to revise the target to 289 runs off 41 overs according to the DL method.
The Pakistanis were off to a steady start thanks to openers Azhar Ali and Ahmed Shehzad, who put together an opening stand of 47 runs in nine overs before pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck the first blow for India by trapping the latter leg before.
Ali continued to battle on, top scoring for Pakistan with a steady 50 runs off 65 balls before being dismissed.
But the rest of the Pakistan batsmen seemed to buckle under pressure and failed to rise to the challenge.
The promising Babar Azam — touted as Pakistan’s answer to Virat Kohli — seemed decidedly ordinary during his 12-ball stay in the middle, scoring just eight runs before a superb reflex catch by Ravindra Jadeja off Umesh Yadav’s bowling ensured his departure.
A 30-run stand between Ali and Mohammad Hafeez followed by a 23-run partnership by Hafeez and Shoaib Malik was the only bit of resistance that the Pakistanis could manage thereafter.
Apart from Ali, Hafeez was the only Pakistan batsmen who managed to stand up to the Indian bowlers even as wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end. He scored 33 off 43 balls with two hits to the fence.
Fast bowler Umesh Yadav was the most successful among the Indian bowlers with figures of 3/0 in 7.4 overs.
Fellow pacer Hardik Pandya and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja returned identical figures of 2/43 while Bhuvneshwar Kumar notched up 1/23.
Earlier, a brilliant batting display helped India post a challenging 319/3.
An unperturbed Kohli and new batsman Pandya played freely and started knocking the ball out of the ground. Pandya hit three consecutive sixes off Imad Wasim in the last over.
