NEW DELHI, Sep 30 (Times of India): Virat Kohli scored a fine 78 to guide India to a convincing eight-wicket win over Pakistan in the Super Eight game and keep their semifinals hope alive in the Twenty20 World Cup at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.
India attained 129-run target in just 17 overs with Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh remained unbeaten on 78 and 19 respectively.
Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli stitched a crucial 74-run partnership for the second wicket to laid the foundation for Indian victory. Kohli's fine half-century came off in 41 balls.
Sehwag, who scored a 24-ball 29, was sent back to hut by Shahid Afridi after the Delhi dasher tried to loft Afridi's slower ball over the ropes but it was eventually caught by Umar Gul at long off.
India lost Gautam Gambhir early as he played a lose shot straight back to the bowler Raza Hasan who made no mistake in taking a simple catch to rid India of its opener.
Earlier, Indian bowlers fired in unison as they restricted Pakistan to 128. Pakistan's innings were bundled up in 19.4 overs after L Balaji dismissed Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal in successive deliveries.
Pakistan got a terrible start as they lost Imran Nazir, Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed and Kamran Akmal inside 50 runs against India after opting to bat.
Ravichandran Ashwin too joined the party as he struck twice to dent Pakistan's brief recovery.
Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal added crucial 47 runs for the sixth wicket to give some respite to Pakistan after early jolts.
Ashwin first got rid of the perilous Shoaib Malik, who played a decent cameo of 28 runs with the help of 3 boundaries. Malik was caught at midwicket by Rohit Sharma while trying to drive.
Soon after dismissing Malik, Ashwin claimed his second wicket in the form of Umar Akmal after the right-hander was brilliantly caught deep in the field by Suresh Raina.
Virat Kohli got rid of skipper Mohammad Hafeez as Pakistan lost half of their side at the score of 59 in 9.5 overs.
Yuvraj Singh's double strike gave denting blows to Pakistan after getting early blows from the seamers.
Yuvraj first dismissed Nasir Jamshed behind the wicket and then picked up his second wicket in the form of Kamran Akmal, who in an effort to strike a slightly offside pitched ball through covers could only find the gloves of MS Dhoni.
Paceman Lakshmipathy Balaji gave India second breakthrough in the form of dangerous Shahid Afridi.
Seamer Irfan Pathan gave India crucial early breakthrough as he dismissed dangerous Pakistani opener Imran Nazir in their Super Eight game.
Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez won the toss and decided to bat first against arch-rivals India.
Dashing opener Virender Sehwag returned to the playing XI after missing last two matches against England and Australia.
Seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji also made his way back in to the team. Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh were left out for today's match.
On the other hand Pakistan have retained the same playing XI which beat South Africa in their first Super Eight game.