India suffered their second successive defeat in the Emerging Team Trophy limited-overs cricket tournament, going down to Pakistan by 37 runs at the Premadasa Stadium at Colombo on Sunday.

In yet another low-scoring match, India did well to restrict Pakistan to 137 in 38.4 overs, with Irfan Pathan (4-22) and Avishkar Salvi (3-27) sharing the spoils. But their chase came a cropper and India were all out for 100 in 22.5 overs, with the best contribution of 23 coming from extras.

It was once again the seam bowlers who derailed the Indian batting. Fahad Masood and Pakistan one-day internationals Junaid Zia and Yasir Arafat bowled an inspired spell.

Although they conceded 13 wides and five no-balls, their all out effort fetched them the right rewards.

Masood picked up four for 30 from his six overs, while Zia and Arafat scalped three wickets each.

The second string teams of India, Pakistan and hosts Sri Lanka are competing in the Emerging Trophy. India lost to Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the opening match at the same venue on Saturday.

Earlier, Pakistan failed to build on the solid platform provided by Usman Tariq (15) and Nadeem  Babar (34), who put on 31 runs for the opening wicket.

Salvi removed Tariq in his sixth over but Pakistan's innings was proceeding smoothly until Pathan removed Shahid Yousuf and Aamer Sajjad with the first and last balls of the 20th over.

Pathan changed the course of the Pakistan innings taking two more wickets even as Babar watched helplessly wickets falling at regular intervals from the other end.

In between, Arafat wielded the willow intelligently to compile an invaluable 28 off 48 balls to stretch his team's total past the 100 run mark.

The Indian batting, which had failed abysmally against Sri Lanka yesterday when it was dismissed for 136, faced a litmus test today. But Gautam Gambhir and Co. failed yet again.

India's chase never began as captain Gambhir lost his opening partner Vinayak Mane and Manvinder Bisla in successive balls in the third over off Masood.

Masood's response to the call of his captain Qaiser Abbas was remarkable. The 22-year-old from Sind then worked up brilliant pace to see off Gambhir (13) while Arafat removed the dangerous Ambati Rayudu (5).

With only 37 on the board, India had lost the cream of their batting. Though Bengal all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla used the long handle to score 21 off 25 with five boundaries but it proved to be just a flicker of a dying lamp.

Brief scores:

Pakistan 137 in 38.4 overs (Nadeem Babar 34, Yasir Arafat 28; Irfan Pathan 4-22, Avishkar Salvi 3-27) beat India 100 in 22.5 overs (Gautam Gambhir 13, L R Shukla 21; Fahad Masood 4-30, Arafat 3-30, Junaid Zia 3-35).