Salman Butt gets a death grip on the bat handle, way down near the splice, with his left hand – and uses it to power the ball straight or square; especially straight. You would think with that grip, he would be a sucker on the drive to the ball pitched up, but Butt has great cricketing sense in picking the ball to hit – and today, the sense and the hitting were on full display chasing the huge India score in overcast conditions and fading light

Many of the shots he played were memorable; none more so than a scorching straight drive that went to the boundary before Sreeshanth had straightened in his follow through; another, equally brilliant, was a quick read of the Irfan Pathan change down and a blistering lofted on drive, using that bottom hand to get under the ball and blast it over the fielder.

The problem with chases of this magnitude is, no matter how hard and how often you hit, you find it hasn’t even dented the mountain that looms. Kamran Akmal’s early fall was an indicator – the keeper-batsman seemed in awesome touch, characteristically fluent in his off driving. But despite helping Pakistan to 50/1 as early as the eighth over, Akmal (24 off 24) fell to the pressure of the ask rate, manufacturing a front foot drive to a Sreeshanth delivery that was too full, and did a bit too much off the seam. The hard edge flew to Gautam Gambhir at a shortish point; the fielder, with absolutely no time to react, pulled off a blinder.

From then on, it was cat and mouse -- or more accurately, cat, mouse, and calculator.

India used its seamers and packed off side fields to force the asking rate up; the recently-bereaved Shoaib Malik and the increasingly dominant Butt kept knocking them around, punctuating the singles with superb hits mostly through the covers, midwicket and in the V.

The wild card was the fielding – with Yuvraj, Kaif and Raina pairing up to cover the region from point to mid off, the pacy Agarkar and the committed Sreeshant patrolling the outfield and the rest backing up well, the Indian fielding was probably the best we have seen in well over a decade. Raina – who was predictably super-subbed in for Tendulkar at the start of the Pakistan innings – had at the halfway mark added a good 30 runs to Tendulkar’s total, with his remarkable ground coverage and enthusiastic athleticism. It’s not easy to

Looming above this frenetic action, literally, was the cloud which increasingly obscured the sun, forcing Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer to scramble through Duckworth Lewis tables and his calculator, and flash the ask, on an ongoing basis, on an ersatz scoreboard for the benefit of the batsmen (The point was made by the commentators, it is one that has puzzled me too – why are such details, relevant to the ongoing action, not flashed on the main scoreboard for the benefit of the batsmen and fielding side alike?).

The Butt-Malik association absorbed pressure superbly. Consider the comparison: At the 20 over mark, Pakistan had made 119/1 against India’s 126/2, but despite the seeming parity, Pakistan’s asking rate was still a hefty 7 rpo.

At the halfway mark, again, the two teams were dead even on runs, at 153 apiece with India having lost two wickets to Pakistan’s 1 – the ask, though, remained 7.08.

Yet, both batsmen kept their nerve, and their heads. Clearly aware that the more wickets remaining in hand, the more favorable Messers Duckworth and Lewis would be in the event of an untimely end, the two balanced the need to keep the board ticking over with the equally pressing need to keep wickets in tact, both for D/L and for a blast at the end.

The partnership also showed the value of working in pairs. Early on, Malik was struggling to put bat to ball; Butt took on himself the onus of farming the strike and keeping the tempo going. Thus, Butt scored 37 runs in the first 50 runs the pair put together. Then Malik got himself in – and promptly took over the onus of scoring, at one point taking Agarkar to the cleaners with an on drive, an upper cut to third man and a smashing straight drive to move to 63 off 53 at that point. In doing that, Malik let Butt slip into the anchor role and ease himself to his 3rd ODI century (111 balls), all of them against India.

Almost immediately thereafter, though, Butt went – attempting to clear cover off Murli Karthik and giving Dravid a chance to show off some good catching skills; the second wicket partnership had made 151 runs in 23.4 overs at 6.38; a great display of consistent strokeplay.

India, on a track that remained beautiful to bat on and against two batsmen in great nick, had only the one game to play – bowl tight lines and ensure that the chasing side didn’t bring that ask down too dramatically. And – though this might fly in the face of the scoreboard – India’s seamers bowled well, much better than recent events led us to hope. Pathan bowled his ten overs through straight (0/52); Sreeshanth opened with a surprisingly nippy 138.6 kmph delivery, and bowled with a lot of pace and swing; and Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, coming in after the power plays were used up, stayed disciplined on a pitch where even good balls disappeared to the fence. At the 30 over mark, Pakistan had scored 179/1 against India’s 192/2.

Murli Karthik was the weak link, getting neither turn (understandable on the pitch) nor drift; compounding it by staying over the wicket and bowling outside leg, which produced wides at critical moments, then switching to round the wicket and pitching short.

Afridi and Malik teamed up with the latter striking a beautiful on driven six off Karthik, followed by a four to third man. That over, the 34th, finally saw Pakistan’s run rate come on par with the ask rate – 6.53 to 6.67. (At the 35 over mark, Pakistan 231/2 against India’s 233/3 – thanks in the main to Malik’s superbly timed acceleration. The batsman, who after posting his 50 off 49 balls, hit up a further 40 runs in just 18 deliveries, perished however when trying to flat-bat Zaheer Khan over midwicket, only to hole out to the fielder there (97 more needed from 86 – and for Pakistan, the advantage of India’s collapse in the last five overs opening up a huge window).

Afridi looked set to take it home, mishitting a six off Sreeshanth after going under a bouncer, but to the next ball, Kaif proved the value of quality fielding skills, running around a checked drive to cover, fielding it on his good side and in one motion, throwing down the stumps with Afridi short of his ground (85 needed off 79). Amazingly, half the crowd promptly made tracks for the exit – apparently the prospect of a Pakistan win is insignificant, if it is not Afridi doing the winning.

Mohammad Yousuf looked in nice nick, but after doing his best to run out his captain by calling him halfway down then sending him back (the throw missed), he fell into a trap set by Dravid. Realizing that neither was good at calling and running, India had brought mid on and mid off inside the circle; Yousuf looked to clear the fielder, off Agarkar, and managed only to hit it straight to mid on (265/5 after 40; India 266/3).

Inzamam with his unflappable calm seemed to be taking the game home, when he managed to find yet another interesting way to get out. The batsman stroked one to mid off, Raina picked up and with Inzy out of his ground, threw at the batsman’e end. Inzy played a perfect forward defensive push at the throw – unfortunately, standing a good three yards out of the crease. The appeal was made (there will be talk of whether appealing for that was within the spirit of the game), and the umpires had no choice but to give Inzamam out (39 needed off 41).

With midnight fast approaching – or so it seemed – Younis stroked Agarkar down the straight field for four (30 more off 34); only for Razzaq to give the initiative away, stepping away from his stumps for a needless heave, and managing only to inner edge for Dhoni – who probably needed a torch to see the ball – to dive and hold (299/7; 30 needed off 32).

In pitch dark, Naved managed a controlled pull for four, then stroked a risky two, carved one through point. With the umpires increasingly fidgety over light, Dravid had to go back to spin – and Murli made amends with a great 47th over that produced just two. That, though, was it – even with Yuvraj poised to bowl, the umpires had no choice but to offer light, which Pakistan promptly accepted, winning the game by 7 runs per D/L, with the board reading 18 to get off 18 balls.

It was defeat, not disgrace; that said, India will rue two missed opportunities. The first, in the last five overs of its innings when it played daft cricket to lose 5 wickets for just 23; secondly, in the field, bowling a touch slow on the over-rate and pushing the game into extended time, on a day when the light had begun fading as early as the 15th over of the Pakistan innings.

At the end of it all, the Pakistan dressing room looked strangely flat, strangely bereft of celebration – both teams had fought hard, punched each other silly, and deserved for one of them to land the knockout blow.