It was a special morning for every member of the Indian team.
They were on the brink of creating history.
Eight wickets and this Indian team would become the first to win a Test series in Pakistan in almost half a century.
But after six catches went abegging in the first hour of play, Sachin Tendulkar walked up to English umpire David Shepherd and joked, "This ball is a hot potato; no one wants to hold it."
Tendulkar himself was among the defaulters, having grassed a difficult chance. But after he took the final wicket of Danish Kaneria, all was forgiven.
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"That last ball summed up the series for me," the master batsman said later. "The feeling that came to me was that we had won the series. As soon as I saw the ball go up in the air, I turned around and grabbed a stump. I didn't even bother to see who caught the ball. It was only after I got back to the dressing room that I found out [skipper Sourav] Ganguly had taken the catch."
As players from both sides exchanged jerseys, pads, and gloves, the champagne was opened in the Indian dressing room and chants of 'Saare jahan se accha, Hindustan hamara' filled the vacant stands in the Pindi stadium.
Pakistani top-order batsman Yasir Hameed asked Indian medium-pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji to get him Tendulkar's jersey. Balaji tried telling him that all the Test jerseys were the same, but Hameed was adamant. He wanted only Tendulkar's jersey.
Kaneria exchanged jerseys with fellow spinner Murali Kartik, but middle-order batsman Asim Kamal, who was looking forward to a chat with Tendulkar, also missed out.
"I was very keen on talking to him," Kamal told rediff.com, "but they were busy celebrating and I could not even get close. I too wanted to exchange jerseys with them. But Tendulkar, [Rahul] Dravid, and Ganguly applauded me on the field when I got my fifty and that was big for me."
The Indian players went totally crazy with joy, knocking one another's caps off, emptying bottles of mineral water on one another, and screaming at the top of their voices in the dressing room like a bunch of happy schoolboys. At the prize distribution ceremony, Irfan Khan Pathan held on to Ramesh Powar's trousers to prevent him from going on stage to accept his award. And the normally placid V V S Laxman screamed "Viru, smile!" when Virender Sehwag went up to accept the Man of the Series award.
When the team arrived at the hotel, it was given a standing ovation by Pakistani fans in the lobby. Balaji, who has become the darling of the Pakistanis, was mobbed as he went to the bookshop to buy himself a mobile recharge card.
Everyone had reason to be cheered. For everyone played a crucial part in the win.
Tendulkar told rediff.com that this win was particularly special because all the players chipped in. "There were brilliant individual performances and great team work," he said. "If Rahul Dravid scored 270 in this Test, Balaji picked up seven wickets. If Sehwag scored 309 and I got 194 in Multan, Irfan Pathan and Anil Kumble picked important wickets."
Tendulkar's words reflected what Rudyard Kipling once wrote about team spirit: For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.
