Cricket fans jubilant as India overcome elements to beat Pakistan

Birmingham, June 16 (ANI): Indian cricket fans were jubilant as India defeated a disappointed Pakistan by the Duckworth-Lewis method in front of a sell-out crowd at Edgbaston in Birmingham after a series of rain interruptions resulted in three revised victory targets.
On the day, it was the Indian supporters who were celebrating after Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won the toss and elected to field.
The Indians reached their final target of 102 from 22 overs with 17 balls to spare in bright evening sunshine after dismissing Pakistan for 165 from 39.4 of their allotted 40 overs.
Opening batsman Shikar Dhawan, who scored 114 and 102 not out in the first two group matches, again top-scored for the winners with 48 from 41 deliveries.
In Birmingham, Indians celebrated with great fervour the win over Pakistan.
Raghu, a fan of the Indian cricket team, said that he had come all the way from London to watch the match and he was not at all disappointed with the outcome.
“My first reaction obviously, one of the biggest game in the tournament India-Pakistan with a houseful of 40,000 crowd on it, and India won the game today (Saturday), and that’s amazing,” said Raghu.
Several fans said irrespective of the outcome of the other matches, this win was equivalent to winning the World Cup again for the Indians.
India enjoyed early success after their captain Dhoni had won the toss when Nasir Jamshed (2) was caught at second slip by Suresh Raina pushing forward to a full delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, promoted to open in an attempt to bolster the fragile Pakistan top order, and Mohammad Hafeez took the total to 50 from 12 overs before the players went off for a brief rain break.
In New Delhi, fans gathered together in large numbers to watch this momentous cricket match and celebrated India’s victory over Pakistan.
“Before today, India had never won a match against Pakistan in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Champion’s Trophy, but today, they won the match in a convincing manner.This team is actually clicking like a unit whether they are the bowlers under Mahendra Singh Dhoni or the batsman, all of them are coming together as a cohesive unit, and of course, there is a word called pride. It means when a lot of lions hunt together and that is what we are seeing in the Indian team right now,” said Mohit, a fan.
The final match in Group B had no bearing on next week’s semi-finals as India has already qualified while Pakistan was eliminated after losing their first two matches.
There was still plenty of pride at stake, though, in what was only the third competitive match in England between the two sub-continent rivals. All 24,000 tickets were sold within three hours of going on sale in November last year. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)