All the experience that Pakistan A carried throughout the tournament, by way of seven Test players in the side, finally counted on the day when it mattered. In the final of the Eurasia Cup cricket series, here, at the Sheikh Zayed stadium, they defeated favourites India A by 36 runs.Abu Dhabi didn’t need a Shahid Afridi or MS Dhoni to light up the proceedings here. An encounter between the two A teams was enough. The celebrations began for Pakistan A with Hasan Raza’s century, when they batted first, and ended with the wicket of RP Singh. Set a mammoth 288 to chase under lights, India A’s start with the bat remained as confident. Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa looked good till the latter fell while trying to slog a full-length delivery, caught at mid-off. Uthappa was soon followed by Dhawan who tried hard to catch up with the required (and growing) run-rate. Then came India’s best partnership — Venugopala Rao and Reetinder Singh Sodhi stitching together 147. Once these two succumbed, Pakistan A never looked back.In the 47th over, when India A’s last wicket fell, the score was 252 — exactly the same that Pakistan A had scored during their batting. In the end, lack of resistance by India A’s lower-middle order and lack of wickets made all the difference.Speedster Umar Gul’s first spell of six overs conceded only six runs on an unassuming, flat wicket. Mansoor Amjad was the one, though, who walked away with four wickets. Gul ended with three. Some exceptional catching and superb groundwork helped Pakistan A’s cause as India ‘A’ needed almost 10 runs an over when end came.Electing to bat first Pakistan A got off to an impressive start with Muhammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar. The Indian bowlers, who showed form versus Ireland, looked clueless and most ordinary with the new ball. VRV Singh, especially, failed to get the ball in the right place, giving away the initiative to the in-form Pak openers. RP Singh too remained a shadow of himself, giving away 60 runs off his 10 overs. Brief ScoresPakistan A: 288 (Hasan Raza 106 n.o., Misbah-ul Haq 73, Taufeeq Umar 40; Piyush Chawla 2/41) beat India A: 252 (Venugopala Rao 69, RS Sodhi 70; Mansoor Amjad 4/68, Umar Gul 3/37) by 38 runs.
