Dubai: Skipper Rohit Sharma and his deputy Shikhar Dhawan showed their mastery in white ball cricket with stylish hundreds as India took a giant stride towards summit clash of Asia Cup with a comfortable nine-wicket win against Pakistan on Sunday. This is India’s biggest win against Pakistan in terms of number of wickets lost. Chasing a target of 238, Rohit (111 no off 119 balls) and Dhawan (114 off 100 balls) flayed the Pakistan attack adding 210 runs for the opening stand to seal their second lopsided victory in the tournament in only 39.3 overs.

It was Rohit’s third successive fifty 50 plus score in the tournament with sequence being 52, 83 no and 111 no. Dhawan’s is even more impressive with 127, 46, 40 and 114.

One of the most fearsome opening pairs in ODI format, Rohit-Dhawan combination were helped by some ordinary bowling from Pakistan with equally sloppy fielding compounding their woes.

Earlier, Pakistan produced an improved batting performance, led by India’s nemesis Shoaib Malik, scoring 237 for 7 in 50 overs.

Veteran Malik scored 78 off 90 balls and added an invaluable 107 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper Sarfraz Ahmed (44 off 66 balls) to enable Pakistan post a fighting total.