COLOMBO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Defending champions India steamrolleredPakistan by 61 runs in a grudge Group A match at the Twenty20 World Cup to swagger into theSuper Eight stage of the tournament on Sunday.
The match between the bitter neighbours did not live up to the hype with India, who now have an 8-1 record against their arch-rivals in the T20 World Cup, maintaining their unbeaten run with another dominant performance.
Opener Ishan Kishan's breakneck 77 powered them to a commanding 175-7 at the R Premadasa Stadium against Pakistan's six-pronged spin attack, which bowled 18 of their 20 overs.
India returned to bundle out Pakistan for 114 in 18 overs to register their third win in a row.
"India v Pakistan is a special game for us and our country. It is a very important game," player of the match Kishan said.
"They had good spinners and we tried to play good shots. It gives us confidence going ahead in the tournament."
The match went ahead after Pakistan earlier reversed their decision to boycott the game in solidarity with Bangladesh, who refused to tour India over safety concerns and were replaced by Scotland.
Pakistan captain Salman Agha and his India counterpart Suryakumar Yadav did not shake hands at the toss, though.
India were reinforced by the return of Abhishek Sharma, who missed the first two matches with a stomach infection, but the opener could not make it count.
Salman sprang a surprise by opening the attack himself and trapped Abhishek lbw for a duck.
Pakistan used three spinners in the powerplay to try to stem boundary flow and India's score of 52-1 after six overs suggested the ploy worked to an extent.
Kishan could not be contained though and the southpaw tore into the Pakistan attack with his take-no-prisoners batting.
The opener took only 27 balls to race to his second successive fifty of the tournament.
Saim Ayub ended Kishan's match-defining 40-ball blitz but India cruised to 92-2 at the halfway stage of their innings.
Ayub (3-25) dismissed Tilak Varma (25) and Hardik Pandya with successive deliveries to turn the heat back on India.
Suryakumar (32) and Shivam Dube (27) could not quite provide the late flourish but India still posted a total that proved well beyond Pakistan's reach.
Pakistan became the first team to employ six spinners in a T20 World Cup match but the joy of having restricted India to under 200 soon evaporatedas they slumped to 13-3 in two overs in their chase.
Pandya removed Pakistan's in-form opener Sahibzada Farhan for a duck and Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Ayub and Salman in the same over to pin down Pakistan.
Babar Azam (five) did not last long either and Pakistan were gasping at 38-4 after the six powerplay overs.
Usman Khan (44) defied India for a while but Axar Patel lured him out to be stumped to effectively snuff out Pakistan's chances of an unlikely victory.
Salman felt Pakistan spinners did not bowl well in the match.
"Our spinners had an off day today," he said.
"We always believe in them because they have done well in the last six months. In the first innings it was tacky and the ball was gripping but the execution was missing."
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Ken Ferris, Christian Radnedge and Clare Fallon)
