Salvi, Pathan fashion India win

Avishkar Salvi and Irfan Pathan picked seven wickets between themselves as India defeated Pakistan by five wickets in the Emerging Team trophy limited-overs cricket tournament in Colombo on Friday.

Salvi claimed four wickets for 16 runs while Pathan returned three for 35 to restrict Pakistan to 177 for nine in 50 overs.

India suffered a minor middle order collapse after a brisk start, but an unbroken 82-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Vinayak Mane (50 not out) and Laxmi Ratan Shukla (39 not out) guided the team to their first victory in the tournament.

Hosts Sri Lanka are the other team in the triangular event.

India had earlier lost to Sri Lanka and Pakistan while their third match against Sri Lanka was washed out by rain yesterday.

Put in to bat, Pakistan had a disastrous start, losing Babar Naeem in the third over. The left-hander edged Salvi to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.

The Salvi-Karthik combination worked again in the seventh over when the other opening batsman, Usman Tariq, snicked one to the keeper.

Shahid Yousuf (60) put up a lone fight, and a 31-run eighth-wicket partnership between Yasir Arafat (16) and Mansoor Amjad (27 not out) boosted the Pakistan total.

The Indian reply began strongly, with captain Gautam Gambhir (22) and S Vidyut (25) adding 52 runs for the first wicket in seven overs. But the dismissal of Vidyut was followed by the fall of Gambhir and Ambati Rayudu, which left the Indians reeling on 58 for three.

Two more wickets -- that of Arjun Yadav and Karthik -- fell in the 18th and 19th over as India were precariously placed at 95 for five.

The experience of India international Lakshmi Ratan Shukla came handy then as the Bengal all-rounder provided the ideal support for Mane.

The victory, when it finally came, was futile, since the two defeats early in the tournament had knocked India out of the final.