"What was your bat made of? Wood or iron?", Ravi Shastri asked the undisputed star of the fifth one-day international between Pakistan and India at Kanpur. Pat came the response; "Probably the one I used today was indeed made of iron!" It was a claim eleven shellshocked Indian cricketers and their equally shellshocked compatriots would heartily endorse.

15th April 2005 was a day Shahid Afridi and his fans will never forget. He strode in to bat in the afternoon session with Salman Butt, 40 minutes after his team had done well to restrict the Indians to 249. Although the Indian score was not quite in the same league as some of the totals posted earlier in the one-day series, it was considered to be a competitive one on a pitch where the bounce was expected to be inconsistent. India's spin duo of Kumble and Harbhajan could not have been blamed for licking their lips on that 'slow and low' wicket. They and their teammates had reason to rejoice after reaching 249 despite being in the doldrums early on in their innings. Tendulkar, Sehwag, Dhoni and Yuvraj had departed with only 59 runs on the board, the first three to Naved-ul-Hasan who has been Pakistan's bowling hero in the one-day internationals. Stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid, not for the first (and going by the way this Indian team is batting, certainly not the last) time in his career, came to the rescue with a valiant innings of 86. He was given good support by Mohammed Kaif, who acquitted himself well with the bat and later in the field.

Given the 2-2 scoreline and the fact that the winner of this match would not lose the six-match series, a keen tussle was expected. But Shahid Afridi made it a virtual 'walkover' with one of the most belligerent innings ever played in a one-day international.

An uncomplicated batsman with an uncluttered mind, not for even a moment did Afridi pause to think about the 'inconsistent bounce' that had troubled the Indian top-order earlier in the day, as he launched into the Indian bowling. Actually, he just didn't care for line, length, bounce or anything. His assault in the first 15 overs left the Indian bowlers shattered and their captain clueless. When he swung, the ball disappeared, going ten times to the boundary and nine times over it. In fact, 'beyond' would be a more appropriate word than 'over', as most of his sixes were gigantic. The Indians had a horrid time in the field, and Zaheer Khan's hapless smile as yet another flailing hit fetched Afridi four runs to move from 92 to 96 encapsulated the mood of the home team. It has to be said however that the bowlers could have maintained a fuller length and concentrated more on movement than pace. Afridi was not exactly complaining when he received several short deliveries that he duly thrashed.

It was one of those days that every batsman experiences at some time in his career, when everything he does clicks. He was caught off a no-ball bowled by part-time Dinesh Mongia in the tenth over, and to add insult to injury, he struck a boundary off the very next ball!

At one point, he seemed headed to break his own record for the fastest ODI hundred (off 37 balls against Sri Lanka at Nairobi in 1996-97), but he 'slowed down' in the 80s and 90s to reach three figures in a mere 45 balls. It was the second-quickest hundred in ODIs, putting him on par with Brian Lara who had hammered the living daylights out of Bangladesh in 1999-00. In the process, he took his tally of sixes in one-day internationals over the 200-mark. He heads the list with 204 sixes. Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka is a distant second at 189.

The Indians were relieved when he perished to an out-of-character defensive stroke, but he had already taken his team to an unassailable position by then. The visitors needed only 119 more to win in 214 balls. Although Butt fell in the very next over and Kaif pulled off a stunning outfield catch to dismiss Youhana, only something sensational like a double hattrick could have brought India back into the match. Shoaib Malik, Youhana, Younis Khan and Inzamam knocked off the runs with ease.

Pakistan, 3-2 up in the series after trailing 0-2, hold all the aces on the eve of the final encounter at Delhi on Sunday. Their bowlers have been disciplined and their batsmen unstoppable. The Indians will be flat and demoralized after their third consecutive loss in the one-day series, and will struggle to pull off a series-saving win two days later against a supremely talented side that is playing to its full potential. Afridi apart, Pakistan have done nothing flashy in this series. Each player has simply given more than 100 % every time he has stepped out on a cricket field, and this has taken them to the threshold of a memorable series win. They have played as a team, and have consequently succeeded as a team.