Dhoni walked out in the middle with India struggling on 91, having lost three quick wickets in 10 balls, and proceeded to play a sensible and patient knock of 76 before falling in the penultimate over.

A fifth wicket stand of 112 from 139 balls by Dhoni and Rohit Sharma kept India going after they slumped to 129 for four despite a breezy opening stand of 88 between Gautam Gambhir (35) and Virender Sehwag (49).

In the final overs, Irfan Pathan, playing his first game of the tournament, struck a breezy unbeaten 38 from 25 balls to push the total beyond 300.

Both the Indian openers were in terrific form, pouncing on the loose balls on the true National Stadium pitch as Pakistan without their regular captain Shoaib Malik, wilted a bit.

After a horrendous opening spell by Sohail Tanvir, pacers Rao Iftikhar and Abdur Rauf bowled well to take the first four wickets.

Gambhir went after hitting four boundaries when he drove hard at a full ball from Iftikhar and was caught by Shahid Afridi in the covers.

In the next over, Sehwag, who had batted beautifully for his 49 from 33 balls with six fours and two sixes, perished as keeper Sarfraz Ahmed took a fine low catch to give Rauf a well deserved wicket.

Five balls later, in-form Suresh Raina (1) hooked Rauf straight to Salman Butt at deep square leg, his first flop after amassing 301 runs with two centuries in the competition.

Yuvraj Singh was his usual confident self, playing some stunning straight drives and swinging Tanvir to square leg for a six before he was out to a outstanding catch from Sarfraz.

The young keeper snapped up a thick edge wide on his left side off Iftikhar to send back Yuvraj for 37 from 32 balls, which left India in deep trouble.

Dhoni, who made his 21st fifty, and Sharma his fourth batted steadily in the face of some tight bowling from debutant off break bowler Saeed Ajmal and Afridi.

Ajmal, who later got rid of Yousuf Pathan for a duck, bowled intelligently to keep the Indians in check after Tanvir went for 43 in four overs.

Iftikhar returned to pick up his third wicket in the 40th over soon after Sharma completed his fifty. The Mumbaikar was caught off an attempted hook shot at deep square leg.

Pathan miscued a shot and got a leading edge to wide mid-off after being dropped three balls earlier by Ajmal off his own bowling.

The match is crucial for Pakistan, as only a win will keep them in contention for the final.

Brief scores: India 308 for 7 in 50 overs (MS Dhoni 76, Rohit Sharma 58, Virender Sehwag 49; Iftikhar Rao Anjum 3/51, Abdur Rauf 2/66).

<

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar.

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (Capt), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Abdur Rauf, Saeed Ajmal.

Umpires: Tony Hill (NZ) and Ian Gould (Eng)

TV Umpire: Akhtaruddin (BD)