India 'A' outplayed Pakistan 'A' in all departments of the game for a convincing 34-run win in the EurAsia Series limited-overs cricket tournament in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
After producing a powerful batting performance to post a challenging 269 for six, the Indians dismissed their arch-rivals for 235 in the day-night encounter at the Sheikh Zayed stadium.
The win saw India top Group 'A' after the first phase of the league stage with two wins from as many matches.
They will now play the second and third placed teams of Group 'B' -- hosts UAE and Ireland -- in the second phase.
Bazid Khan stood tall among the ruins with 87, for Pakistan, who had the consolation of gaining a bonus point from the match.
Rudra Pratap Singh (2-39), Vikram Rajvir Singh (3-33), Reetinder Singh Sodhi (2-34) and Ravinder Jadeja (2-28) shared the spoils for India.
Earlier, India A's top order batsmen fired in unison to prop up the Indian total.
After Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan put up a century opening stand, captain Venugopal Rao (45) and Rohit Sharma (62) consolidated with another strong partnership.
Uthappa and Dhawan each made 52, but the latter scored at a quicker rate.
The Karnataka batsman faced 61 balls and hit six fours while the Delhi player's runs came from 51 balls with 11 boundaries.
Their left-right combination kept the Pakistani attack at bay while stitching 100 runs for the first wicket from inside 17 overs.
Dhawan repeatedly played the slash-cut shot against the Paksitani pacers who tried to bounce the Indian batsmen.
The association was broken when Dhawan tried to step out to off spinner Mohammad Hafeez (2-46) and was beaten by a wide delivery to be stumped in the 17th over.
Uthappa went back five overs later as the umpire belatedly upheld a leg before appeal by leg spinner Mansoor Amjad (2-49).
Rao and Sharma added 86 runs for the third wicket with the captain making a composed 45 off 74 balls.
The Andhra batsman was unfortunate to miss out on his half-century, caught by his Pakistani counterpart Hasan Raza off Umar Gul (2-51) in the 38th over.
Sharma, with valuable support from wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Kaarthick, then picked up the scoring baton.
The right-hander's innings of 62 came to an end when he top edged a pull shot against Gul and was caught at square leg.
Kaarthick perished in the slog overs, caught in the deep off Amjad for 33.
Scorecard
India A:
R Uthappa lbw b Mansoor Amjad 52
S Dhawan st Haider b Mohammad Hafeez 52
Y V Rao c Hasan Raza b Mohammad Hafeez 45
Rohit Sharma c Irshad b Umar Gul 62
D Kaarthick c Hameed b Mansoor Amjad 33
R S Sodhi not out 3
S Badrinath c Misbah-ul-Haq b Umar Gul 1
R Jadeja not out 5
Extras: (b 2, lb 1, w 10, nb 3) 16
Total: (for 6 wickets, 50 overs) 269
Fall of wickets: 1-100, 2-121, 3-186, 4-254, 5-259, 6-263.
Bowling: Umar Gul 10-1-51-2, Mohammad Irshad 4-0-27-0, Yasir Arafat 10-1-57-0, Mohammad Hafeez 10-0-53-2, Mansoor Amjad 10-0-50-2, Taufeeq Umar 6-0-29-0.
Pakistan A:
Yasir Hameed LBW b VRV Singh 1
T Umar b Jadeja 51
Mohammad Hafeez b RP Singh 13
Mansoor Amjad b VRV Singh 4
Bazid Khan c Dhawan b Jadeja 87
Hasan Raza st Kaarthick b Chawla 11
Misbah-ul-Haq c Sharma b Sodhi 17
Yasir Arafat b VRV Singh 0
Zulaqarnain Haider c Sharma b Sodhi 1
Umar Gul b RP Singh 5
Mohammad Irshad not out 6
Extras 39
Total (all out in 49.1 overs) 235
Bowling: Rudra Pratap Singh 9-0-39-2, Vikram Rajvir Singh 10-1-33-3, Reetinder Singh Sodhi 6-0-34-2, Piyush Chawla 10-0-46-1, Venugopala Rao 2-0-10-0, Ravinder Jadeja 9.1-2-28-2, Subramaniam Badrinath 3-0-21-0.
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