Salman Butt's heroic century went in vain as India made amends for the Mohali debacle by clinching the third cricket one-dayer against Pakistan.
KANPUR: Another team effort and some innovative captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni ensured that India went into the lead for the second time in the series against Pakistan here at the Green Park Stadium on Sunday.
The hosts won by 46 runs to take a 2-1 lead with two matches to go despite a career-best 129 from opener Salman Butt.
Despite losing the toss, India were off to a flier thanks to another rollicking stand between Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar on a wicket that had a fair bit of juice for the first hour or so.
And when they were losing way in the middle again, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni stitched a 100-run partnership in quick time for the fifth wicket.
A couple of sixes from Irfan Pathan and India had posted a daunting target of 295, the highest total at this venue.
Then came the master stroke from Dhoni. He asked Irfan Pathan to open the bowling with local boy Rudra Pratap Singh.
The last time Shahid Afridi played at this venue against India, he blitzed away to a 45-ball hundred as an opener.
The moment he stepped out in the open for an encore with Butt, Dhoni backed Pathan and RP to trouble him with the new ball swing.
After going for three boundaries in his first over, Pathan struck. Afridi made the mistake of freeing his arms on a pitch that is notorious for its low bounce.
Pathan’s medium pace was just enough reason to be circumspect on such pitches.
But then, caution is never something found in Afridi’s armoury and he perished.
The mind games resulted in Pakistan too pitchforking their best candidate upfront — last match centurion Younis Khan.
Both ensured that Pakistan were ahead on run rate when RP delivered. Khan shouldered his arms to an inswinging beauty and paid the price.
No sooner had Butt set about picking up the pieces, this time with Mohammed Yousuf, Yuvraj dived, turned and ran out the latter — all in one motion.
Skipper Shoaib Malik failed to deliver again, trapped leg-before to Yuvraj and it was left to another rearguard action from Misbah-ul-Haq to form a partnership and yet remain in the zone for a final assault.
Zaheer Khan benefited the most in the consolidation period.
Unlike the failure at Mohali, the Indians succeeded in breaking the shackle before it could harm.
It was Murali Kartik who provided the breakthrough and got past Misbah’s defence. RP Singh came back to cut the tail with two more wickets and Butt was the second-last man to go, failing to connect Harbhajan Singh’s delivery in the blockhole.
Earlier, the morning too provided a riveting contest between the bat and ball. With the ball bouncing initially, a Tendulkar edge flew over the first slip after Ganguly was dropped by Kamran Akmal off the first ball of the innings.
Ganguly came down the track to hit Umar Gul for a six, was greeted with a bouncer in the next over and replied with an inside-out chip over short cover.
The top order, including Gautam Gambhir, failed to make the most of their decent starts and it was left to Yuvraj (77) to punish the visitors for the costly errors on the field.
Dropped at 4 by Butt at short-midwicket, he struck three sixes and four boundaries on his way to another classy knock.
He got able support from Dhoni and consolidated initially. On the either side of the ball change at the end of the 34th over, Yuvraj struck his first two sixes and Dhoni complimented them with two from his blade.
The 100-run partnership in 92 balls shifted the momentum and, hopefully, for the series as well.
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