India blunted Pakistan’s challenge on the opening day to take a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup World Group I play-off tie with Ramkumar Ramanathan and N Sriram Balaji rising to the occasion in the high-pressure contest, here Saturday.

A fired-up Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi gave his all in a tight opening singles, but the intensity of the match and tough conditions took a toll on him as he suffered a 
hamstring injury in the third set, which prevented a close finish to a hard-fought contest.