No stopping the Casanovas

Even with the series win safely stashed away, Indian cricket's modern-day Casanovas couldn't bridle their lust for the chase. This 13th successive romp while pursuing a total put them within a game of equalling the record set by the nearly invincible West Indian side of the mid-'80s, and once again emphasised just how much of a force they have become in the limited-overs format. Pakistan, who have scaled a few one-day peaks of their own under Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer weren't merely beaten in the last four games. They were made to look like two-bit amateurs, despite twice having totalled in excess of 285.

At the halfway stage of their innings, India had made sedate progress to 114 for 1, and the asking rate had climbed up to seven-an-over. When Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined Yuvraj Singh in the middle, the equation at one stage was a challenging 92 from 67 balls. Even then though, you never sensed that it might be Pakistan's game, and the fact that the finishing touches were applied with 19 balls to spare, and Yuvraj hobbling around on one leg, said much about how facile this triumph was.

Pakistan's fielding, exemplified by the normally reliable Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Malik, was such a shambles that a target of 287 appeared infinitely smaller. The last thing you need with batsmen of the quality of Yuvraj and Dhoni coming at you is to make their task easier by dropping catches and fumbling the ball like it was a bar of soap. Between them, Yuvraj and Dhoni piled up 563 runs in the ODI series for four times out, and Pakistan's bowlers had absolutely no answer to their crisp hitting and unflappability in every situation.

Rahul Dravid's tranquil 50 established a platform, and Yuvraj ticked along at a run a ball to ensure that panic - a stranger to this Indian ODI side in recent times - never set in. Pakistan's seamers bowled with great discipline early on, but line-and-length basics alone offer no answer to the threat posed by Yuvraj and Dhoni. Their century stand in the crucial match at Lahore had been compiled at hectic pace, but this association outdid even that, with 146 runs pounded from just 99 balls. The last 46 of those took just 20 deliveries, and each massive biff from Dhoni seemed to scream of a desire to clear the immense stands at the National Stadium. He failed to do so, but the little fusillade of shots provided a rollicking end to a match that rarely rose above the mundane.

With Dhoni and Yuvraj already recognised as match-winners, the greatest source of satisfaction for the team management was Sreesanth's spell at first-change in the morning. Having been entrusted with the new ball in previous outings, Sreesanth was "challenged" - to echo Dravid's words at the press conference - to perform a different task, and he emerged with his reputation considerably enhanced. Given the sameness of the left-arm pace attack that cost India the Test series here, change is surely in the offing ahead of Nagpur, and this spell and a couple that preceded it have surely pushed Sreesanth to the front of the queue.

Though he picked up only one wicket today, Rudra Pratap Singh was just as impressive, in a bowling line-up that stuck to its task admirably but for the 14 wides that were conceded. India's much-maligned bowlers picked up 45 wickets to Pakistan's 25, bowling out the opposition thrice, and were largely responsible for the momentum shift that transformed this series after the bad-light-interrupted thriller at Peshawar. Of course, it helped that they were backed up by some stunning fielding - the dropped catches at Lahore were an aberration - where their Pakistani counterparts had to cope with fielding support that rarely rose above the mediocre.

There might have been no last Karachi hurrah for Sachin Tendulkar, but his 237 runs played just as pivotal a role in a 4-1 triumph that was every bit as resounding as it appears. For all the controversies and hullabaloo that have followed this team everywhere in recent times, you simply can't argue with Dravid's captaincy record - 12 wins from 16 against three highly-rated teams - since being appointed before the Sri Lanka series in October. The staleness and mediocrity of the past two seasons is now a distant memory, and no praise can be too high for a team that scraped the barrel of despair at Karachi less than three weeks ago only to fight back with the spirit of champions. And boy, can they chase.