Well-paced centuries from Salman Butt and Younis Khan powered Pakistan to 315 for three after the side won a crucial toss. Then Umar Gul & Co. closed out a tense duel.
Salman Butt was adjudged Player of the Series, and Younis Khan, Man of the Final.
A determined Mahendra Singh Dhoni (64, 59b, 3x4, 2x6) kept India in the hunt till the last stretch with calculated aggression before being held in the deep off leg-spinner Shahid Afridi with ten deliveries remaining.
Gul employed the short ball effectively initially and impressed with his swing and yorker length at the death. Left-armer Sohail Tanvir’s craft was visible in the manner he used the crease and changed the angles.
Rao Iftekar Anjum chipped in with his wicket-to-wicket line and the ability to take the ball away.
And Afridi produced two decisive moments of the match consuming a well-set Yuvraj Singh with a slider and then dismissing a battling Dhoni.
Tactically superior
Pakistan was also tactically superior on the day. It played a fifth specialist bowler in left-arm spinner Fawad Alam, with skipper Shoaib Malik also chipping in with his off-spin. The pitch became increasingly slower.
The fact that India was without a specialist fifth bowler might have separated the winner from the loser.
Handling a demanding chase, Virender Sehwag, misread the deceptive Tanvir’s pace and perished to a leading edge.
The fluent Gambhir and the smooth-stroking Rohit Sharma threatened briefly when Malik gave his trumpcard, Umar Gul, another fling. Gul struck, with Rohit top-edging a half-hearted pull. Soon, India was in a deeper mess with Gambhir’s (40 off 33 balls) fierce upper-cut off Gul picked up near the point fence. The bowling change had worked.
At 79 for three in the 13th over, India faced a difficult path. Yusuf Pathan promised before succumbing to an innocuous delivery. His uppish on-drive was held with ease.
The left-handed Yuvraj Singh kept India in the hunt with firm drives in the ‘V’, and a few scorching shots square off the wicket whenever the length permitted.
Yuvraj and another southpaw, the busy Suresh Raina, added 73 runs in 11.3 overs to revive India’s hopes.
Despite the presence of the left-handed duo, Malik, bravely, employed young left-arm spinner Fawad Alam. And Pakistan struck. Raina, casual in his sweep off a leg-stump full toss, found the fielder stationed for the shot. It was a tame dismissal.
Not much later, Yuvraj (56, 59b, 5x4, 1x6) was snared outside the off-stump by Afridi. Dhoni and Irfan Pathan strove to rebuild but Pakistan kept finding the breakthroughs. The side deserved the win.
Earlier, opener Butt (129 redt. hurt, 136b, 12x4, 3x6) and Younis Khan (108, 99b, 8x4, 3x6) built a solid edifice for Pakistan.
While credit is due to the two, Dhoni’s captaincy was baffling during a critical juncture. Pakistan had crawled to 75 for one in 20 overs and then Dhoni lost the plot between overs 20 and 30. He bowled Piyush Chawla from one end for most part, and gave short stints to Sehwag, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj and Raina. Pakistan recovered from 75 for one to 149 for one during these ten overs. Not pushed to preserve wickets, the side consolidated and then upped the rate of scoring. This was the phase where the innings changed course.
scoreboard
Pakistan: S. Butt (retd hurt) 129, K. Akmal c Dhoni b Irfan 15, Younis c Sehwag b Ishant 109; Misbah-ul-Haq c Rohit b Irfan 33, S. Afridi (not out) 10, S. Malik (not out) 11; Extras: (b-2, lb-4, w-2, nb-1) 9; Total: (for three wickets in 50 overs) 315.
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-239, 3-293.
India bowling: Praveen 10-1-37-0; Ishant 10-0-57-1; Irfan 10-0-59-2; Chawla 10-0-85-0; Sehwag 3-0-26-0; Yusuf 2-0-11-0; Yuvraj 4-0-23-0; Raina 1-0-11-0.
India: G. Gambhir c (sub) b Gul 40; V. Sehwag c Malik b Tanvir 2; R. Sharma c sub (Jamshed) b Gul 24; Yusuf c Younis b Iftikhar 25; Yuvraj c Akmal b Afridi 56; S. Raina c Afridi b Alam 24; M.S. Dhoni c (sub) b Afridi 64; Irfan c Malik b Iftikhar 28; Praveen lbw b Gul 5; P. Chawla b Gul 2; I. Sharma (not out) 0; Extras (lb-7, nb-2, w-11): 20; Total (in 48.2 overs): 290.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-67, 3-79, 4-106, 5-179, 6-187, 7-247, 8-262, 9-284.
Pakistan bowling: Gul 9-0-57-4, Tanvir 10-1-60-1, Iftikhar 10-0-58-2, Afridi 9.2-0-56-2, Malik 4-0-28-0, Alam 6-0-24-1.
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