Gone in 8 minutes

He troubled Youhana but added nothing to this eight-wicket haul for the match. Irfan Pathan, however, managed to get the number five bat to sky one straight up in his desperation to steal a single and shield Ahmed from Kumble’s deceptions.

Rahul Dravid, captain for this Test, screamed, ‘‘mine’’ to stop his mates from stampeding towards the ball, to make sure the hosts’ second innings score froze at 216.

India now lead the three-Test series 1-0. Their innings and 52 runs edge is just marginally short of India’s innings and 70 runs victory in the first ever India-Pakistan Test match at Ferozeshah Kotla in October 1952. ‘‘It is a historic win’’, said Dravid after the match. ‘‘To record the first Test win in Pakistan is a very special achievement. It is a very special moment.’’

It is foremost a special moment for the subcontinent. Great demands have been made on cricket this past month. It has been asked to share the playing field with more than a billion people. It has been urged to show us that two often-bitter neighbours can agree on a few rules, and have a lot of fun.

It has been exhorted to be keen and fiercely contested, to make up for such a long suspension of the game’s greatest rivalry.

Two teams came to the Multan Cricket Stadium this week. Both strove to give their very best. Each of them valued victory above all else. One proved it had stronger nerves for the main event, both can take a bow for playing with a straight bat.

In a series charged with political significance, they displayed their enormous talent pool to keep the drama centred within the boundary. For Team India it has been solemn ratification. In the past couple of years they have announced allegiance to a new resolve, they have learnt to hunger for success.

Acquiring that appetite has, in fact, been more difficult than acquiring the skills necessary to achieve triumph. From Port of Spain to Headingley to Adelaide it has been a learning curve. At each of those ports of calls, they were compelled to battle history and play out of their skins.

In Multan too Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Anil Kumble gave exemplary accounts of their talent and ambition. But in this match individual performance was subordinated to Team India’s needs. Sehwag joined a select club of triple centurions, but he did it by dancing to a new rhythm. He suppressed his bluster, his innings was suffused with patience and responsibility.

Tendulkar arrived at a new threshold, he is now 33 centuries old, two away from a record whose contours will be entirely in his hands. He did it slowly, he was agitated when the team declared while he was still on 194, but finally had to make peace with New India.

Team above self — once Dravid’s motto, now the team’s driving slogan. Irfan showed that he could one day be the Pathan of Swing. Kumble produced miracles out of ordinariness. And India, suddenly rendered a pacer short after Zaheer Khan’s injury, constructed victory out of bits and pieces: Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh got wickets, the fielders hunted in pairs and kept the batsmen honest.

It is in this commitment to the basics that lay the difference between the two sides. There’s been no drain of talent from the till-now triumphant Pakistan Test side. The moment will come any day when Shoaib Akhtar achieves the wonderful feats predicted for him. It takes just a split second for his deliveries to reach batsmen, it takes just a blink of the eye for him to send the opposition hobbling.

But to do that, he and his support team would have to temper their derring-do with reason and consistency. Inzamam-ul Haq’s grace, Youhana’s resilience, Yasir Hameed’s raw class — Pakistan’s batting pool is deep. In Lahore, be sure, the match-up will be intense. But on this April Fool’s Day, only one team is laughing.