ICC World Twenty20 England 2009

Rohit and Gambhir script emphatic win
Finally India and Pakistan played out a one-sided Twenty20 game. Filling in for Virender Sehwag as opener, Rohit Sharma continued to give India a combination dilemma and made the chase seem like an afternoon walk in a London park. A target of 159, with extra bowlers available by the virtue of this being a 13-a-side game, was by no means an easy one, but Gautam Gambhir and Rohit managed with the ease that belies the tension an India-Pakistan match brings.

Nothing about this encounter suggested it was a warm-up game. The sell-out crowd, and the intensity in the first innings was something even the final of the actual tournament will be proud of. But in the second innings, Pakistan went into the experiment mode. They went in with an interesting strategy, interchanging the usual roles between Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir. Gul, who usually bowls in the last 10 overs, opened the bowling, and Tanvir came on to bowl in the 10th over - none of the moves worked.

Nothing about Rohit's innings suggested that he was a makeshift opener. Although Gambhir kickstarted things with three boundaries in the first three overs, including one off Gul's first ball, it was Rohit who took the match away from Pakistan. He got going with a heave over mid-on in the third over, but the slogs were conspicuous by absence in the rest of his innings.