Bludgeoned, Battered, Bruised

Shahid Afridi recorded his second fastest century thatgave Pakistan a thumping five-wicket win in the fifth one-day international andcomplete a brilliant turnaround in the six-match series against arch rivalsIndia today.

After the Indians frittered away the advantage ofwinning the toss with some inept batting display and were restricted to 249 forsix, Afridi came up with one of the fastest one-day hundreds to put the hostbowling on the mat and help Pakistan romp home with 7.5 overs to spare at theGreen Park stadium.

The dashing Afridi stole the limelight with somebreathtaking strokes to give the visitors an unassailable 3-2 lead in the serieswith the last tie to be played in Delhi on Sunday.

Afridi's 102 came from 46 balls and contained 10 foursand nine sixes as he blasted the Indian bowling to smithereens. It was the thirdfastest ODI century ever, the dashing opening batsman holds the world recordwith a 37-ball 102 against Sri Lanka at Nairobi in 1996-97.

Afridi added 131 runs with his opening partner SalmanButt whose subdued 21 needed as many balls as Afridi for his triple figurescore.

India paid the penalty for not applying themselves on awicket that offered variable bounce. They owed their total a record fifth wicketstand between stand-in captain Rahul Dravid (86) and middle order batsmanMohammad Kaif (78).

The duo's 135-run stand lifted the team from the rubble of 59 for four but theeventual target proved to be too meagre to defend against the brilliant assaultof Afridi.

The belligerence of Afridi's knock has now set up afitting climax in Delhi to the visitors' eventful 48-day tour.

Pakistan, who suffered heavy defeats in the first twomatches, now have a decisive lead and go with their collars up into the muchawaited final one-dayer in Delhi where their President Pervez Musharraf would bethe chief guest.

Afridi waded into the Indian bowling in the very thirdover of the Pakistan innings when he plundered 23 runs off Lakshmipathy Balajiwith two sixes and a four.

When the right-arm seamer was replaced by Anil Kumble,Afridi welcomed the leg spinner with three sixes and a boundary and forced himout of the attack after just one over.

The Pakistan 50 came in the fifth over with Afridi'sthird six off Kumble and the 100 in the 11th over with another lofted shot offpart-time spinner Dinesh Mongia.

The opener reached his half century with a sweetlytimed four down the line off Zaheer Khan, the milestone coming in just 20 ballswith five sixes and as many fours.

It kept raining fours and sixes as Afridi went hammerand tongs. Suddenly, all the noise in the 40,000-capacity stadium was comingfrom the special enclosure filled with 650-odd tourists from Lahore and Karachi.

The vast majority of the Indian supporters had littleto crow about the whole day and now that they were pummelled into submission byAfridi, they cheerfully bowed to his clean hitting.

When Afridi's sweep shot off Harbhajan fell into the hands of Yuvraj Singh atshort fine leg, only for umpire K. Hariharan to signal 'no-ball', it was clearthat it was Afridi's day out.

A back foot pull-drive off the same bowler to the longon boundary brought up Afridi's fourth one-day hundred and his second againstIndia. But barely had the celebrations stopped when he played the next ball onto his stumps.

It brought to an end what is now the highest openingpartnership by a visiting team at Green Park, the previous best being 115between Phil Simmons and Stuart Williams of the West Indies in 1994.

Kumble returned to trap Butt leg before the wicket withonly four runs added but any hopes the Indians might have cherished of a fightback was nipped by Shoaib Malik (41) and Yousuf Youhana (24) who ground them todust with a 58-run partnership for the third wicket.

Inzamam-ul Haq (24 not out) and Younis Khan (24) sawthe team home, with the captain brining the winning runs with a square drivefour off Mongia.

Earlier, Dravid and Kaif added 135 runs for the fifthwicket to lead India's recovery after seamer Rana Naved-ul Hasan had driven awedge through the top order with three wickets in successive overs.

Electing to bat, India made a disastrous start as theylost three wickets in seven overs with only 26 runs on the board.

Rana (3-35) more than made up for the loss of fast bowler Mohammad Sami -- downwith a heel injury -- as he made use of the early moisture in the pitch toremove Sachin Tendulkar (1), Virender Sehwag (5) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (11)in his second, third and fifth overs respectively.

Rana removed Tendulkar with a classic out swinger,which the batsman could only snick to the wicketkeeper.

Sehwag then was undone by the variable bounce, his hugeback swing a bit too late to block the delivery that held its line and sent theoff stump cart wheeling.

Dhoni played across the line and the gentle out swingertook the outside edge to third slip where Younis Khan collected a fine lowcatch.

Three wickets in the space of 16 runs meant the Indianswere denied a blazing start that had been a routine in this series.

Yuvraj, with a half century from the last one-dayer toboost his confidence, played a couple of stunning shots -- including a back footpunch off Rana to the long on fence and a pull to the square leg fence off RaoIftikhar Anjum.

But, after adding 33 runs from 56 balls for the fourthwicket with Dravid, the Punjab left-hander too was undone by the unpredictablenature of the track and saw his woodwork disturbed by one that kept below kneeheight.

Fortunately, Kaif found his form at the right time torescue the sinking ship. The Uttar Pradesh batsman flicked the first ball hefaced from Abdul Razzaq to the square leg boundary. By then whatever juice inthe pitch was gone and Kaif was able to play his shots with less difficulty.

PTI