India 'A' set 270 victory target for Pak 'A' in Eurasia Cup

Abu Dhabi, Apr 28 (UNI) Indian 'A' top order batsmen clicked together to post a comfortable 269 for six against Pakistan 'A' in the six-nation Eurasia Series at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here today.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, India 'A' were off to a flying start with last match centurions Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan stamping their authority against Pakistani bowlers and raced to a 100-run partnership from 17 overs for the opening wicket.

Both the openers notched up half centuries.

Dhawan (52) was the first to go out leg before to Mansoor Amjad in the 17th over. His 51-ball 52 was studded with 11 hits to the fence.

Skipper Venugopal Rao then joined Uthappa and Pakistani bowlers applied brake and run rate slowed down a bit. Uthappa departed soon, stumped by Zulqarnain off Mohammed Hafeez four overs later. His 61-ball 52 had six fours.

After Uthappa's departure, Rao steadied the innings and grafted ones and twos to take the score, along with Rohit Sharma, to 186 before he was out in the 37th over caught by Hasan Raja off the bowling of Hafeez. Rao's 74-ball 45 had only one hit to the fence.

Dinesh Karthik (33, 37 balls, 2X4) joined Sharma and the two push up the run rate, took the Indian score past 250 mark and remained unseperated till the 48th over when Sharma was out off the bowling of Pakistan Test discard Umar Gul.

Sharma made 62 from 74 deliveries, with the help of four fours and a six.

India 'A' had won their first match against Holland by 202 runs.

Scoreboard: India Robin Uthappa lbw b Mansoor Amjad 52 Shikhar Dhawan st Zulqarnain b Mohammad Hafeez 52 Venugopal Rao c Hasan Raza b Mohammad Hafeez 45 Rohit Sharma c Mohammad Irshad b Umar Gul 62 Dinesh Karthik c Yasir Hameed b Mansoor Amjad 33 Reetinder Sodhi not out 3 S Badrinath c Yasir Arafat b Umar Gul 1 Ravinder Jadeja not out 5 Extras (B-2, LB-1, W-9, NB-4) 16 Total (For six wickets in 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 10-0-57-0 Mohammad Hafeez 10-0-53-2 Mansoor Amjad 10-0-49-2 Taufeeq Umar 6-0-29-0 UNI XC PDS BD2109