Yousuf Youhana was the hero as Pakistan beat India by three wickets in the crucial Group C league match and entered the semi-finals in the ICC Champions Trophy at Edgbaston on Sunday.
In a nail-biting contest, Youhana came up with a gritty innings after Pakistan were reduced to 27 for 3 to score an unbeaten 81 as India's modest total of 200 was overhauled with four balls to spare.
Pakistan will take on the West Indies, who beat South Africa earlier in the day, in the second semi-final at Southampton on Wednesday.
Australia and England will contest the first semi-final on Tuesday.
Earlier, put into bat, India were tottering at 73 for 5 before vice-captain Rahul Dravid stepped in and propped the innings with a stubborn 67 from 108 balls.
He was well-supported by Ajit Agarkar, who hit 47 off 50 balls after coming in at 106 for 6.
Dravid and Agarkar added 82 runs for the eighth wicket to enable the team put up a fighting total.
Naved-ul Hasan and Shoaib Akhtar were Pakistan's most successful bowlers, claiming four wickets each.
India innings
The India-Pakistan match finally brought the Champions Trophy back to life. But the pro-Indian hooters were silenced just five balls into the match when skipper Sourav Ganguly was caught in the slips and India had lost their first wicket without a run on the board. The chants of 'Pakistan jitega' erupted and the ground was submerged in a sea of green flags.
Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul Haq won a very important toss and elected to field first. In the pre-match conference, he mentioned that the winner of the toss would have a 20 per cent advantage; now it was down to his bowlers to prove him right.
Ganguly went back to his old formula of seven batsmen, including Rohan Gavaskar ahead of Dinesh Kartik, while Pakistan retained the team that had scored an impressive victory over Kenya in their earlier league match.
The Edgbaston wicket had been under covers for the best part of a week and it was only right to expect that there would be moisture available for the bowlers to exploit. The start of play was delayed by 15 minutes as the curator tried to get the wicket in prime condition with the help of dryers.
The Indian batsmen brought about their own downfall. Ganguly had advocated the need to settle down before playing any shots. Today he paid the price for doing exactly the opposite.
Ganguly's old failing outside the off-stump resurfaced at an inopportune moment for the team. Sami tempted him with a delivery outside the off-stump and Moin Khan, behind the wickets, made no mistake. (1 for 1)
Laxman (the score 2 for 10), and Sehwag (3 for 28), then fell to balls that they would normally dispatch to the boundary with ease. Both failed to keep the ball on the ground and were caught in the field. Their contribution to the Indian total was 3 and 10 runs respectively. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan was the bowler to benefit on both occasions.
Kaif was dropped on nine by Afridi and, as it so often happens, the batsman hit the next ball for four. Sami could do nothing but think about what might have been. He tried to bounce Kaif with the next ball, but it cleared wicket-keeper Moin Khan and found its way to the boundary.
At the end of 15 overs, India had reached 47 for the loss of three top-order batsmen, though the situation could have been worse.
Rana's first spell was a brilliant 7-1-14-2. He landed the ball on a spot, bowled at a decent pace and let the ball dictate its own course - exactly the recipe for success on this wicket.
A 45-run partnership between Dravid and Mohammad Kaif seemed to settle nerves. But then Shoaib Akhtar struck two devastating blows.
First he removed Kaif, who was starting to look increasingly confident. The ball pitched outside the off-stump and bounced more than the batsman expected. The resultant edge flew straight to Moin, who made no mistake. (73 for 4)
But Yuvraj Singh's dismissal (0) three balls later, in identical fashion, hurt India even more. India were tottering at 73 for 5 and in danger of not even batting out their 50 overs.
Rohan Gavaskar was in next. He survived a torrid time and put on 33 runs off 83 balls with Dravid. It wasn't a great partnership by any standards but it was important that the two stayed at the wicket.
Gavaskar failed to get the ball away and was pegged back by some disciplined bowling before Razzaq got him. He scored 13 off 43 balls.
A measure of Pakistan's domination was indicated by the fact that after Dravid hit two boundaries in the 19th over, the next boundary for India only came in the 35th.
Ajit Agarkar has for long been India's most enigmatic player. He's so inconsistent that probably he himself does not know which Agarkar - the good or the bad - will turn up at the match.
Luckily for India, it was the good; the holder of the record of scoring the fastest 50 by an Indian in ODIs.
Along with Dravid he quickly set about getting things right. He started off by pinching quick singles before opening up his shoulders and dealing some hefty blows.
At the 40-over mark, India were 131 for 6.
Runs started to flow at a decent pace as Agarkar and Dravid got stuck in. But Rana made the crucial breakthrough once again when he dismissed Dravid.
The 82-run partnership off 83 balls between Agarkar and Dravid not only kept the Indians afloat, but it also gave them a fighting chance.
Dravid scored a vital 67 off 108 balls. Soon Agarkar was also dismissed by Rana, but both batsmen had done all that was needed of them.
India were all out for 200 in 49.5 overs.
Pakistan innings
For India to challenge Pakistan it was vital that they got a few early wickets. With only 200 on the board the only way they could win the match was by bowling Pakistan out.
Irfan Pathan provided India the perfect start. The ICC's emerging player of the year has made it a habit of getting early wickets. In the first over of the Pakistan innings, Imran Farhat tried to play square of the wicket. It was little too early in the innings to try such a shot, when common sense would have called for a straight bat. The result: he edged the ball to wicketkeeper Dravid, who gleefully completed the catch. (1 for 1)
The second dismissal was a carbon copy. Shoaib Malik (5), who at number three has been a revelation for Pakistan in recent times, was the man dismissed by the Pathan-Dravid combination. (10 for 2)
Irfan was increasingly looking like the only bowler capable of getting a breakthrough. He kept peppering new batsman Inzamam and opener Yasir Hamid with short deliveries, but the duo resisted the temptation to hook.
Irfan did not change his line of attack and Hamid (15) finally went for the hook shot. He connected well, maybe too well, because the ball flew straight to Ashish Nehra at deep fine leg. Nehra fumbled twice before holding on to the ball, much to the relief of his teammates. (27 for 3)
Pakistan were down to their last two specialist batsmen. Inzaman and Yousuf Youhana now held the keys to victory. If India got the two early they would be well on their way to an improbable victory.
But a 75-run partnership between Inzamam and Youhana had the Indians on the ropes. During the partnership, the Pakistan skipper, when on 23, became only the second player in the history of the game too score 10,000 runs in ODIs.
The duo was content to bide time and even as it became cloudy once again the Pakistanis were still in command.
All that changed when Inzamam was dismissed by Agarkar in the 29th over. The right-hander scored 41 off 79 balls. (102 for 4)
Next man in was Abdur Razzaq, a batsman who has the power to change the course of a match with a few lusty hits. But all that only happens only after he finds his rhythm. India needed to get his wicket before he settled down.
That's exactly what Sehwag did when he clean bowled Razzaq for nine off 21 balls. (127 for 5)
Suddenly it was the Pakistanis who were feeling the heat. It got worse when Moin Khan also departed after scoring 10, caught brilliantly by Yuvraj at point. (152 for 6)
It was now getting tight for both sides. The difference between the runs required and balls remaining had come down to 10. Another quick wicket and India would be in the driver's seat.
But try telling Shahid Afridi that. He understands just one language -- that of attack. And in a seven-ball blitz he put on 18 runs, including two huge sixes of Pathan, who had just come back into the attack.
Pakistan were now cruising and 25 runs were needed off 42 balls. They could do it with singles. With Youhana still there they clearly held the upper hand.
Afridi's brutal hitting proved to be the vital difference. But then Ganguly, in one of his bewildering but successful moves, got Yuvraj into the attack. He was probably working on the principle that Afridi likes pace and it might be better not to give him anything to work with.
The move worked. Off the second ball of Yuvraj's over, Afridi danced down the track and hit high towards the long-on region, where Sehwag took a comfortable catch. Afridi had scored 25 off a mere 12 balls.
With just ten runs to get, a runner came on for Youhana. It all added to the tension and the crowd was starting to go wild.
Naved-ul-Hasan struggled as it came down to seven runs off the last 12 balls with three wickets in hand. But a four from Youhana in the penultimate over crushed Indian hopes.
Youhana finished the job he had set out to do. He came in to bat at the end of the 11th over and stayed there till the end. In the process guided Pakistan to a memorable victory.
It was typical Youhana innings, full of deft placements with the odd hit to the boundary. His value as a batsman grows with every innings. During the innings he crossed 4,000 runs in ODIs.
He ended up unbeaten on 81 with Naved-ul-Hasan on five as Pakistan won by three wickets.
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