Butt for Salman …

Or the bowling that lacked penetration and, save the fired-up Pathan, aggression. Or in the minds of an Indian team that failed to build on the Mumbai win over Australia a week ago.

Speaking after the match, Ganguly failed to offer any clue — it wasn’t the dew, he said — save the fact that Pakistan played better. ‘‘We never looked like winning the game, they took the game away from us’’, he said.

Pakistan did that thanks to Butt (20), who played with calm, control and cramps to score his maiden century. Inzamam-ul Haq (75) was initially restrained but opened up with victory in sight.

After very early success, when Younus was out in the fourth over, India’s bowling failed to come up with a strategy to contain Pakistan’s scoring. That, given the depth in the batting, would always come back to haunt them in the slog overs. Irfan, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Nehra all went for around 5 an over; Sehwag went for more than 7. And Sachin, the breaker of partnerships, went for 15 in his only over, one that gave Pakistan the belief that they could win.

It was a reversal of the trend till date this season, when the batting had failed to back up the bowling. Today, on a perfect Eden Gardens track, India’s batting — especially the middle order — showed glimpses of what it could produce.

Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly all played spirited knocks. Laxman’s 43 off 44 was all elegant aggression — at one point he had a better strike rate than Sehwag!

But it was Yuvraj with a typically rapid-fire 78 of 62 who propelled India towards their 292. With 10 fours and two sixes, he demoralised the Pakistani bowlers to such an extent that even Ganguly started dominating them.

With Ganguly, first, and then Kaif, Yuvraj saw India score 92 runs in the last 10 overs, something they haven’t done in a long time.

Before the match, Inzamam had said 270 would be a defendable score. India scored 22 more but lost — maybe because they didn’t believe they could win.

In Jaipur, South Africa will be watching with interest.