India rout Pakistan; (Azharudd)In lead

India made no changes to their playing eleven. Pakistan made just one change to the eleven that last played the Indians – Fazl-e-Akbar made way for Mushtaq Ahmed. Early morning fog delayed the start of the match by 45 minutes. The match was reduced to a 46-overs-a-side match. On winning the toss, Rashid Latif, Pakistan’s skipper, chose to bat.

Shahid Afridi, whose 41-ball innings included four boundaries, scored 29. Sixty-nine balls into the match, he was caught by Sourav Ganguly. Harvinder Singh broke the 45-run partnership. Aamer Sohail, whose 17-ball innings included a boundary, scored 10. Thirty-two balls later, he was caught by Nayan Mongia. Debasis Mohanty broke the 28-run stand.

Saeed Anwar, whose 60-ball innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 38. Forty-one balls later, he was caught by Ganguly. Sairaj Bahutule broke the 22-run stand. Ijaz Ahmed, whose 52-ball (Sach)innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 34. Sixty-nine balls later, he was stumped by Mongia. Tendulkar, the player of the match, broke the 47-run partnership.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, whose 48-ball innings included a boundary, scored 33. Thirteen balls later, he was caught by Harvinder. Tendulkar broke the run-a-ball stand. Manzoor Akhtar faced 10 balls, scoring nine. Twenty-five balls later, he was stumped by Mongia. Tendulkar broke the 17-run stand.

Latif, who faced (Srina)three balls, scored just a run. Five balls later, he was caught by Mohammad Azharuddin, India’s skipper. Javagal broke the one-run stand. Azhar Mahmood, whose 32-ball innings included a couple of boundaries and a six, scored 30. Thirteen balls later, Srinath broke the 24-run stand.

Although Saqlain Mushtaq, who faced nine balls, was unbeaten, he had no reason to be in seventh heaven. Mushtaq, whose four-ball innings included a six, scored 10. He was unbeaten. Pakistan conceded 11 extras. India scored 212 for the loss of eight wickets off 46 overs. Robin Singh, who bowled nine wicketless overs, conceded 26.

Harvinder, who bowled five overs, conceded 20. He picked up a wicket. Bahutule, who bowled seven overs, conceded 31. He picked up a wicket. Mohanty, who bowled nine overs, conceded 46. He picked up a wicket. Srinath bowled nine overs, including a maiden. He conceded 40, picking up a couple of wickets. Tendulkar, who bowled seven overs, conceded 45. He picked up three scalps.

Tendulkar, whose 78-ball innings included half-a-dozen boundaries and five sixes, scored 95. A hundred days short of his 25th birthday, he became the youngest batsman to reach the 6,000-run mark in One-day Internationals. Twenty-five overs into the chase, Afridi broke the 159-run partnership.

Ganguly, whose 87-ball innings included eight boundaries, scored 68. Thirty-one balls later, he was trapped leg before wicket by Mushtaq, who broke the 23-run stand. Azharuddin, whose 38-ball innings included a couple of boundaries, scored 30. He was unbeaten, as was Ajay Jadeja, who faced 21 balls. He scored 11.

Pakistan conceded nine extras. India, who scored 213 for the loss of a couple of wickets off 37.1 overs, won by eight wickets with 53 balls to spare. Akhtar had no reason to be in seventh heaven – he conceded 11, and was wicketless.

Mahmood and Aaqib Javed bowled four wicketless overs apiece. While the former conceded 26, the latter, whose spell included a maiden, conceded 24. Saqlain, who bowled 10 wicketless overs, conceded 53. Afridi and Mushtaq bowled nine overs each, picking up a wicket apiece. While the former conceded 49, the latter conceded 48.

India led the best-of-three finals 1-0.