Kanpur, April 15, 2005
India Pakistan Cricket Series 2005 - 5th One Day International Result: Pakistan 252-5 beat India 249-6 by five wickets
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Teams arrive in Kanpur sans Ganguly Discuss ODIs 
April 13, 2005
The India and Pakistan cricket teams arrived here tonight to play in the fifth one-day international cricket match on Friday. The teams, which arrived here by road from Lucknow, checked into a city hotel amidst tight security arrangements.
A big crowd of fans thronged the shopping complex near the hotel located in the centre of the city to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars.
The six match series is now level at 2-2 after Pakistan staged a superb comeback winning the last two matches in Jamshedpur and Ahmedabad.
Kanpur is India's favorite strip Discuss ODIs
April 13, 2005
After the disappointment at the Ahmedabad tie against Pakistan, India would get the last chance to turn the ball in its court at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur on April 15 during the fifth and the second-last one dayer of the ongoing series.
The lush green stadium, located just about 100 metres from the bank of river Ganga in the industrial city of Kanpur has been known for favouring the Indian cricketers at most of the times.
India has played eight matches at the stadium, out of which, it has been triumphant on six occasions and has lost the other two matches. Only four Indian batsmen including master-blaster
Sachin Tendulkar have the record of hitting a century at this field. Sachin hit a ton of just 89 balls including seven sixes, in Kanpur against Australia in 1998.
Wicket favours first bat Discuss ODIs
April 12, 2005
The wicket, according to Anand Shukla, BCCI pitches committee member, and chief curator Shiv Kumar, is batsman-oriented; spinners, they said, will get slow turn as the match progresses. The bounce will not be as high as the one we saw in Jamshedpur but it will be good for the batsmen to play on the rise, says Shukla.
He goes so far as to predict that the previous highest score of 259 (India vs England in 1989) at this venue should get a beating.
Legendary groundsman Chhote Lal, who has prepared practice and match wickets here since 1979-80, says the match will be decided in favour of who bats first. It will be difficult chasing, he says, a total of 280-plus should be safe.
Here is a tinge of green but its just dead rolled grass. Not like the green he left in his very first Test wicket, which West Indian fast bowler Malcolm Marshall exploited. I still remember that match. Malcolm bowled a bouncer and Gavaskars bat left his hand. Everyone fumed at me during lunch, asking my why I left grass on the wicket.
India have played eight of the nine ODIs staged here, winning six. One of those two defeats was when India captained by Kapil Dev were dismissed for 78 by new boys Sri Lanka, back in 1986.
MATCH: A spectacular solo effort from Shahid Afridi saw Pakistan breeze to their 250-run target with 47 balls to spare in Kanpur. The big-hitting opener struck nine sixes in total to become the first player to notch up 200 sixes in one-day internationals, reaching his 50 in just 20 balls - three balls short of the world record set by Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya against Pakistan in 1996.
Afridi, who collected an extraordinary 42 runs from two overs, went on to record 102 off just 46 balls, making him the joint-second fastest centurion in the history of international limited-overs cricket, as Pakistan finished on 252 for five in response to India's total of 249 for six.
Pakistan now having edge over India in the series by 3-2.
India, in a team showing three changes, elected to bat first and totalled 249-6, recovering superbly from 26-3 after Naved-ul-Hasan's early wickets.
But brilliant partnership of 135 for the fifth wicket between Mohammad Kaif and
Rahul Dravid got India going. Dravid was run out in the final over for 86 after Kaif had hit 78.
Naved-ul-Hasan's accurate opening burst rattled the Indian top order as they limped to 38 for 3 at the ten-over mark. Apart from the relentessly disciplined length that Naved maintained, the batsmen also had to contend with a pitch with variable bounce as the batsmen struggled, edged and finally fell.
But none of the dismissals had anything to do with the pitch misbehaving.
Sachin Tendulkar received a beauty from Naved: unsure of whether to play forward or back he pushed at one that left him a shade and edged a simple catch to Kamran Akmal behind the stumps.
Virender Sehwag had no clue when confronted by one that came in and played outside the line of a ball that crashed into his of stump. And just when the situation demanded a cautious approach, Mahendra Singh Dhoni swished and swung, connected a few, dodged a few and finally edged one to Younis Khan at second slip.
Musharraf, who is coming to Delhi to watch the last match, can hold his head high as he walks into the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium, able to face the tens of thousands of spectators in the stadium and inside the very living rooms of India where countless millions would be watching the live telecast.
In Picture: Top Afridi's 102 came from 46 balls and contained 10 fours and nine sixes as he reduced the Indian bowling to smithereens.
Above In the fifth over, Hasan bowled
Virender Sehwag for 5 to reduce India to 11 for two.
Discuss 
| Kochi | Vizag | Jamshedpur | Ahmedabad | Kanpur | Delhi
