Top five ODI knocks by a Pakistan batsman against India

2. Shahid Afridi (102 runs off 46 balls – Kanpur, April 2005)

No Indo-Pak games are complete without the mercurial all-rounder Shahid Afridi going hell for leather in his own maverick manner. India realized that the hard way during the fifth one-dayer of a six-match bilateral ODI series in April 2005.

Captain Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif hammered fine half-centuries to take India to a total of 249 after pacer Naved-ul-Hasan rocked the line-up with three quick wickets. Then Salman Butt and Afridi strode out to launch the chase.

The 25-year-old Pathan took off like a rocket, hammering boundaries and sixes left and right. He spared no single bowler, and singled out Lakshmipathy Balaji for special treatment – the ever smiling Chennai pacer had been one of the star performers on the 2004 tour to Pakistan – and plundered him for many runs on both sides of the wicket.

Sachin Tendulkar, the lone remaining survivor from the team that toured the neighbouring nation in 1997, could be excused for thinking that the clock had turned back to when Ijaz Ahmed had subjected his side to such savagery. Afridi had unleashed a 23-ball blast then, but on this day, he was in a murderous mood and in a different zone altogether.

Never before had Kanpur witnessed such a ruthless display of batting from any visiting cricketer. Shahid zoomed towards yet another century in ODI cricket, this time off 45 balls, before off-spinner Harbhajan Singh castled him for 102. But the damage had been done. India never quite recovered from the early assault, and Pakistan won the game by five wickets.