Virtuosity: Pakistan thrashed with clinical precision in T20 match at Colombo as India's no-loss World Cup record against rivals stays intact

By Shreyas Sharma

Published: 21:43 BST, 30 September 2012 | Updated: 02:04 BST, 1 October 2012

Pakistan was always known as a mercurial side, but it is the Indian bowlers who seem to have been performing their own interpretation of RL Stevenson's classic 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' in this World Twenty20.

The good doctor turned up in the must-win Super Eights Group 2 game at the R Premadasa Stadium here on Sunday, and shot out Pakistan for a below-par 128 in 19.4 overs.

Then, Virat Kohli (78 not out) made yet another classy half-century and put on 75 for the second wicket with the returning Virender Sehwag (29) to put India in the driver's seat, while Kohli and Yuvraj Singh's unbeaten 54- run stand finished the job as the team stayed alive in the tournament with eight wickets and 18 balls to spare.

Thus India kept their record of never losing to Pakistan in a world tournament, making this their third World T20 win to add to five ODI World Cup victories.

They can now qualify for the semi-finals if they beat South Africa on Tuesday, without depending on Australia to defeat Pakistan. Since India will be playing the later game on the day, they will know the exact margin of victory required to make it through even if Pakistan beat Australia.

After Gautam Gambhir fell in the very first over, Sehwag and Kohli took the opportunity the low target afforded to pace their innings well.

The veteran batsman played some great shots against the speed of Umar Gul, though he looked short of his best, while Kohli pierced the field at will.

The youngster's best shot of the day was an effortless hit off Shahid Afridi, when he chipped down the track and smote it over long-off for six.

With India cruising at 70 for one after 10 overs, Afridi did induce a false shot from Sehwag, who spliced the ball down to long-off for Gul to complete the formalities.

But the Kohli juggernaut never slowed down, and the convincing win helped India improve their net run-rate in a close group.

However, if they had won two balls earlier, they would've gone past Pakistan in the table.

Earlier, MS Dhoni chose to abandon the five-bowler theory on Sunday and reverted to the tried-and-tested line-up he had played against Afghanistan, bringing back Sehwag and Lakshmipathy Balaji in place of Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla.

Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez opted to bat, and when Zaheer Khan began with three wides and a total of 13 runs in the first over, most fans would've been reminded of the disastrous opening over of the 2003 ODI World Cup final.

But Irfan Pathan got one to curve into Imran Nazir, getting the lbw decision from the umpire.

The outof- form Shahid Afridi walked in at No.3, and two boundaries from him meant Pakistan had 26 from the first two overs.

But both the experienced left-arm pacers got the swinging ball back in control and, with neither Hafeez nor Afridi looking to take undue risks, the run rate came down drastically.

Balaji's introduction in the fifth over got Afridi holing out to deep square leg, and soon after, soulofcricketer.mystrikingly.com Yuvraj (2/16) produced two wickets in two overs, getting both Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal caught behind off bottom edges.

Hafeez was in a shell and had crawled to 15 off 27 balls when he played an innocuous Kohli delivery on to the stumps, leaving Pakistan struggling at 60 for five after 10 overs.

The fifth bowler's quota had produced three wickets for just 17 runs. Shoaib Malik started a revival by getting a couple of boundaries away, while Umar Akmal smashed Pathan for six to get the run rate over seven after a long time.

But R Ashwin's (2/16) strategy of bowling around the wicket to right-handers paid off when top-scorer Malik (28) spooned up a catch to mid-wicket, followed in his next over by the younger Akmal, who hit a pull shot straight to deep mid-wicket.

Yuvraj, who had been leaping about in the field, then produced a direct hit from point to get rid of Yasir Arafat, and Balaji (3/22) cleaned up the tail with the wickets of Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal off successive balls.