The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Karachi

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma each hit a half century Wednesday to lead India to 308-7 off its 50 overs against injury-hit Pakistan in the Super Four of the Asia Cup.

Dhoni made a fighting 76 off 96 balls in the one-day match, with four boundaries, while Sharma scored 58 off 71 balls as they added 112 runs for the fifth wicket.

Pakistan's second-string bowling attack, which came under the onslaught of Virender Sehwag (49 off 33 balls) and Gautam Gambhir (35 off 32 balls), came back strongly and claimed three wickets in space of three runs.

But Dhoni led from the front and Irfan Pathan - playing his first match of the tournament after recovering from a side strain - made a quickfire unbeaten 38 off 25 deliveries to take four-time Asia Cup winner India past the 300-run mark.

Pakistan suffered a big blow when its regular captain Shoaib Malik failed a fitness test before the toss, leaving Misbah-ul-Haq to lead the hosts in a must-win match.

But Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat wicket, and Sehwag and Gambhir provided India a brisk start of 88 runs off 63 balls as Pakistan's seamers found it difficult to contain the flurry of boundaries.

Left-arm paceman Sohail Tanvir conceded 43 runs off his first four overs, while Rao Iftikhar's first over went for 15 runs.

Pakistan managed to rock India when paceman Abdur Rauf took the wickets of Virender Sehwag and the in-form Suresh Raina in one over, and Shahid Afridi then held onto Gambhir's fierce cover drive in the covers off Iftikhar.

Yuvraj Singh (37) hit four boundaries before he edged Iftikhar behind the wickets as India slumped to 129-4 in the 19th over.

Still, Dhoni and Sharma repaired the damage with some watchful batting as newcomer off-spinner Saeed Ajmal (1-47) bowled a decent spell of 10 overs and got the wicket of Yusuf Pathan (0) in his last over - a ball before dropping the batsman off his own bowling.

Wicketkeeper Ahmed took a brilliant running catch to end Dhoni's innings in the 49th over to give Tanvir his only wicket, but the paceman conceded 87 runs off his 10 overs - the highest ever by a Pakistan bowler in a one-day international against India.