The perfect one-day performance

It was the perfect one-day performance by Pakistan. If Bob Woolmer had written an over-by-over script for how this match should go, he would have struggled to come up something to beat this display.

For a start, they put in a clinical batting performance. It isn't often that such an adjective is used for Pakistan, but today their discipline stood out as much as their flair, and no-one epitomised it more than Salman Butt, who recorded his second one-day century against India in four matches. In both the earlier matches, Butt had thrown it away attempting audacious strokes after getting starts; here, free of the pressure of batting in a run-chase, he did the sheet-anchor's job superbly, eschewing risks, finding the gaps, and running like a hare.

Butt's exclusion from the side for the last two Tests was one of the more inexplicable decisions taken by the Pakistan team-management in recent times, but here was proof, once again, of his ability. Performance in a one-dayer might not necessarily indicate much about a player's Test-match ability, but he has shown his skills in the longer version too, against Australia, no less. Pakistan's selectors would be fools not to give him an extended run in both forms of the game.

For a long time in Pakistan's innings, it seemed they had missed a trick by not forcing the pace earlier. The first 27 overs yielded just 14 fours and 134 runs in all, fractionally less than five an over. Going by the trend in the series, that was well below par. However, by constantly nudging the singles and taking no chances, Butt and Shoaib Malik laid a solid foundation upon which an explosive middle and lower order could build on - the last 23 overs disappeared for 185, with 16 fours and three sixes.

The real surprise of the day, though, came from Pakistan's bowlers. Pummelled to all parts in the earlier games, here they obtained pace, bounce, and, quite amazingly, appreciable seam movement, something they'd struggled to achieve throughout the Test series. Naved-ul-Hasan, another highly under-rated player, performed like a champion, striking the early blows from which there was no comeback for India. The curator at the Keenan Stadium deserves plenty of praise for preparing an excellent pitch. It had pace and bounce to facilitate strokeplay, but it also offered joy to the pace bowlers who were prepared to bend their backs - how often do you see Rahul Dravid get out fending a short ball in Tests, leave alone ODIs - and to spinners, who obtained turn and bounce.

One-dayers have been reduced to a bowler-bashing extravaganza far too often, rewarding batsmen with little skill. Pitches like this one redress the balance somewhat, but the sad part is that this track might be the anomaly - Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Delhi, the venue for the last three games, are all likely to be heartbreakers for bowlers.

For the Indians, this result, especially their debacle with the bat, was a disaster waiting to happen. The 2-0 lead they held coming into this match owed a great deal to Virender Sehwag, Dravid and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but their huge scores had hidden the failures of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif - the four had contributed 53 from eight innings in the series before this match. It was only inevitable that the three Indian batting stars would fail at some point - they did today, and the rest of the cast were found badly wanting.

Not only was the Indian batting effort lamentable, they were also shockingly lackadaisical in the field, bringing to light once again a problem which keeps rearing its head, and about which the team management seems to be doing absolutely nothing. With nine overs to go and just 13 minutes to bowl them in, Sehwag ambled towards the umpire to hand over his hat, while the rest of the fielders walked towards their fielding positions without the slightest bit of urgency. The stifling heat is clearly a factor, but that might excuse a delay of five, maybe ten minutes; when a team is 25 minutes late, it shows an utter disregard for rules. Ganguly will be lucky to get away with anything less than a suspension.

For now, though, it's time for Pakistan to savour the win. It should go down as one of Pakistan's finest all-round performances, one that should be canned and pulled out whenever the players needs reaffirmation of just how good they can be.