Pakistan at peace, beats India by eight wickets.

The real beauty that lies behind cricket was on display last night at the National Stadium in Karachi. The manner in which the Pakistan team lifted themselves up is commendable and in won’t be wrong to say that Pakistan was the only team playing the match.

 After having won the toss M S Dhoni decided to bat first. Upfront, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir went about their usual business of tearing the bowling apart. Within no time the 50 of the partnership was up and had signs of becoming ominous, much like that of Jayasurya and Sangakara in the match against Bangladesh. The duo looked in prime nick as they taunted Sohail Tanvir, by far the best Pakistani bowler recently. Virender Shewag was his usual self in a very unusual way, he fancied the on side and we hardly saw any vintage cover drives from the dasher neither an attempted trademark upper cut. The six over mid wicket from Sehwag's bat almost showed the signs of this what lay ahead. Gautam Gambhir was making it his own game by just sneaking the singles and feeding Sehwag with most of the strike. But the silent Volcano finally erupted as Gambhir danced down the track and hit a four over the in field in his favorite manner, in side out.

 Pakistanfinally had success when a miscued hit from Gambhir of Rao Iftikhar, was nicely pouched by Shahid Afridi. But you could say that at 88 in 10 overs the damage was done.

However the further breaks on the scoring was applied when Sehwag was dismissed in the very next over, the ball kissing the face of the bat and Sarfaraz Ahemad doing a fine job behind the stumps. The catch was referred to the Third -Umpire but Sehwag walked instead, knowing that the ball had carried. Abdur Rauf, still in his early days of cricket brought all his first class experience into play when he got rid of Suresh Raina in the same over. The technical problem of Raina in facing the short-ball was exposed as he held out to the sole man in the deep on the leg side.

From 88 for no loss to 91 for three, the process of rebuilding was left to the skipper Dhoni and Yuvraj. Yuvraj took the attack to the bowling and look very good for his 37 coming just in 32 balls and including four fours and one mighty six over Long-on. However going got tough after Yuvraj departed of a very good catch again by keeper diving to his left.

Rohit Sharma and Mahinder Singh Dhoni then did the rebuilding of the innings, the stitched together a partnership of 112 runs build mostly around ones and twos. Sharma and Dhoni fought the heat for 22 overs and got India to a respectable total. Both players showed a lot of class and were helped a little by the laid back fielding of the Pakistan. The scoring rate kept hovering around 5 rpo, however I have every reason to believe that they could have taken more chances in the middle overs.

After Sharma (56) left Dhoni (76) just could not get the boundaries and kept on taking the singles. Irfan Pathan returning to the scene was entrusted with the responsibility to break the shackles and he responded with a quick fire 38 helping India post 308 for the loss of seven wickets.

The star of the Pakistani bowler was by far Saeed Ajmal the 30 year old veteran off spinner, on international debut finished with honorable figures of 1-47 (10). He was rewarded by the wicket of Yusuf Pathan for his persistance and perseverance.

Nassir Jamshed and Salman But started off proceedings for Pakistan and that too in good fashion. The got Pakistanoff to a flyer and were helped by some poor blowing by the Indians. Praveen Kumar kept on drifting on to the leg side and Salman But kept on hitting him for fours. Irfan Pathan also could not make the new ball talk and the curl away from the left-handers was not visible. The 18 year old Jamshed was almost imitating Shahid Afridi and was playing balls up in the air that landed in no mans land. Indians looked really shaken on the field as Ishant Sharma let the ball pass between his legs.

However the calling in the middle between Jamshed and But looked poor and as a result Ghambhir effected a sharp run-out from the third man to dismiss Salman But.

Walked in the ever calm and smiling Yunous Khan and looked in no hurry to force proceedings. On the other side Nassir Jamshed kept the score board ticking and notched up his half century. But Nassir (53) had to go Retired hurt to leave a sniff for India.

Mohammed Yusuf took the stage and looked good for the 23 balls that he stayed there, he was out to a noting shot bowled behind his legs by Piyush Chawla. Misbah-ul-haq playing his first game as captain, led from the front as he and Yunous Khan anchored the ship.

Yunous Khan played a fine knock characterized by sweeping the spinners for ones and twos. While Misbah was his usual self getting the boundaries and the singles at will.

An unbeaten stand of 144 between Misbah (70 n.o) and Yunous Khan (123 n.o) saw Pakistan cruising to victory by eight wickets and six overs to spare.

For once nothing went right for India in the field and the young Indian bowling side got a first hand experience of bowling on flat track. The real difference between the two sides was the attitude in which the game was played and also that India missed a bowler like Saeed Ajmal who could put the brakes on the scoring.

But the best part of yesterday's game was that it brought to live the essence of cricket to life. The last time these two teams met India was no match for Pakistan and this time it was a entire role reversal. This is was cricket is all about, you might be the best side in the world but at the beginning of any game the butterflies always hover in the vicinity. The text book definition of cricket being a "great leveler" was almost stamped into authority last night in the way Pakistan won the game.

Last nights loss has increased the pressure on India to win against Sri Lanka, which has been the best side in the completion.

Millions of Indian fans would be hoping that tonight the definition of cricket is stamped and enforced into authority.