Inzamam seeks consolation win over India by AFP

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Ground:	National Stadium, Karachi
Player:	Inzamam-ul-Haq
Event:	India in Pakistan 2005/06

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DateLine: 18th February 2006

 

Pakistan cricket captain Inzamam-ul Haq Saturday urged his team to make best efforts for a consolation victory after conceding an unbeatable lead to India in the one-day series.

 

"We need to win this last match because a win is always encouraging," Inzamam said ahead of the fifth and final match at the National stadium here on Sunday.

 

Pakistan, who beat India, the West Indies and England in one-day series last year, landed in a no-win situation after India took an unbeatable 3-1 lead.

 

"Our team has been playing good cricket for the last 15 months and results prove this. India has outplayed us in this series and deserve the win," Inzamam said.

 

Pakistan took the first match at Peshawar by seven runs before India hit back by winning the next three matches at Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan. Inzamam said better fielding has decided the series.

 

"You have high-scoring one-day matches in the sub-continent so fielding is vital, and it was the difference between the two teams in this series," he said.

 

Indian captain Rahul Dravid said doing well against higher-ranked teams had been a big plus for his side.

 

"Sri Lanka was higher than us, so was South Africa and now Pakistan was number two. So we have played well against teams higher than us," said Dravid, whose side beat Sri Lanka and drew to South Africa in one-dayers last year.

 

"This last match is as important as the other matches, so we need to win this as well as the objective is to win every time we play," Dravid said.

 

Teams:

 

Pakistan: Inzamam-ul-Haq (capt), Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Yasir Arafat, Arshad Khan, Rao Iftikhar.

 

India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Sri Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, Ramesh Powar.

 

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WIS), Aleem Dar (PAK)

 

TV umpire: Asad Rauf (PAK)

 

Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)