At the Sawai Man Singh today, Akhtar did not allow that slim Indian candle of hope -- that burned so brightly in Nagpur -- to even flicker into life this time. And, his two wickets in two overs this afternoon -- Ganguly and Dravid -- meant India were 33 for two and well beyond the target of 278.

So cruelly was the Tendulkar factor hammered back into the Indian psyche during this 143-run defeat that all the good work in Nagpur went down the drain. It is doubtful now that the little man will be allowed his completequota of rest and, for all you know, he could be back at least for the final. That is, if the Lankans allow India to reach there at all.

Indeed, it was such a huge let-down by the Indian batsmen that the furious crowd here took it out on Azharuddin. A sprinkle of plastic bottles greeted him as he trudged back to the dressing room after having played a horrendous shot -- an attempted cover drive off an outswinger away from the body -- to end his 4-ball innings. If that was the worst shot of today -- coming as it did in a crucial moment for India --the blame has to be equally divided down the order.

There was only a sketchy 61 from Ajay Jadeja to keep things sputtering along while the rest never really could hang on in there even as the pitch got slower by the day. And to think that it was Jadeja who was on trial here!

Vinod Kambli must now come up with something dramatic to get a ticket to England. And, he won't get much time to do that as the selectors have dropped him from the Pune match against SriLanka. Nikhil Chopra, meanwhile, has virtually confirmed his World Cup berth. Chopra's temperament, body language, lusty hitting and accurate bowling was one of the few silver streaks for India today. Another was the bowling of Uttar Pradesh rookie Gyanendra Pandey.

In fact, Pandey and Chopra prevented what would have been a complete humiliation as they came into bowl in tandem after the 19th over of the morning. Opting to bat, Pakistan were 127 for one at that stage with Afridi having put the fear of God in Anil Kumble mind after ripping him for five fours in his first over. Kumble, by the way, was brought in to stem what was turning out to be another massacre as Anwar took the lead in smashing Agarkar for 31 runs in three overs.

Nagpur's strike bowler, Agarkar just could not land on his favourite short-of-a-length spot. Probably, the tiring journey from Nagpur had something to do with the stiffness that seemed to cramp him out there. The Indians reached Delhi around 11 p.m on Monday night after theLanka match and were back at the Palam airport at 4 in the morning on Tuesday for their Jaipur flight.

Anyway, that takes nothing away from the Pakistanis, and Saeed Anwar in particular, as they had this match in their pockets right from the start. The only hiccup, from their point of view, was Anwar missing his century by five runs. A bit embarrassing too for the left-hander as he was sent back by Rahul Dravid's off-spin.

That brings us to another interesting nugget of the day: Azharuddin unveils a new line in the captaincy debate. Other than handing over the ball to Dravid in a spurt of imaginative captaincy he was out there today, nudging his fielders in rare, open displays of motivational gestures. Once he even walked up to Gyanendra Pandey after the newcomer had completed an excellent over, had a brief chat him and then thumped him on the back before scampering back the slips area.

But, in the end, all those plastic bottles and cries of ``Azhar hai, hai'' brought things right back to squareone.

SCOREBOARD

PAKISTAN

S. Afridi c Chopra b Kumble 38 (49m, 33b, 6x4, 1x6)

I. Ahmed c Mongia b Chopra 29 (65m, 45b, 4x4)

Inzamam-ul Haq b Kumble 43 (77m, 61b, 3x4)

Y. Youhanna b Kumble 1 (6m, 5b)

Moin Khan b Srinath 22 (19b, 2x4)

W. Akram c Srinath b Kumble 1 (2b, 3m)

A. Mehmood b Agarkar 22 (14b, 20m, 1x4))

A. Razzaq c Chopra b Srinath 4 (12m, 6b)

A. Khan (not out) 5 (5m, 6b)

S. Akhtar (not out) 0 (1m)

Extras: (lb 11, nb6, w 1) 18

Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 278

Fall Of Wickets: 1-75 (Afridi, 9.5), 2-150 (Ijaz, 24.3), 3-200 (Anwar 37.2), 4-203 (Youhanna, 38.6), 5-236 (Inzamam, 44.2) 6-238 (Akram, 45), 7-260 (Moin, 47.2), 8-268 (Mehmood, 48.3), 9-276 (Razzaq, 49.5)

Bowling: Srinath 8-1-39-2 (2nb, 1w), Agarkar 8-0-73-1 (4nb), Kumble 10-1-53-4, Chopra 10-0-42-1,Pandey 10-1-39-0, Dravid 4-0-21-1

INDIA

S. Ganguly c Moin b Akhtar 13 (31m, 20b, 2x4)

A. Jadeja c&b Afridi 61 (154m, 96b, 6x4)

R. Dravidb Akhtar 3 (11m, 9b)

M. Azharuddin c Moin b Razzaq 1 (17m, 4b)

V. Kambli lbw Razzaq 4 (5m, 3b)

N. Mongia st Moin b Arshad 11 (55m, 33b)

A. Agarkar c&b Akhtar 4 (12m, 13b)

G. Pandey st Moin b Arshad 0 (3m, 2b)

N. Chopra run out (sub) Shahid Nazir 29 (18m, 22b, 2x6)

A. Kumble (not out) 3 (12m, 11b)

J. Srinath c Akram b Afridi 3 (6m, 8b)

Extras: (nb 5, w 6) 11

Total (all out, 36.1 overs) 135

Fall Of Wickets: 1-23 (Ganguly, 5.5 overs), 2-33 (Dravid, 7.5), 3-48 (Azharuddin, 11.2), 4-53 (Kambli, 11.5), 5-88 (Mongia, 23.5), 6-96 (Agarkar, 27.2), 7-96 (Pandey, 27.4), 8-125 (Chopra, 32.4), 9-131 (Jadeja, 34.2).

Bowling: Akram 6-0-33-0 (4 nb, 3 w), Akhter 5-1-10-2, Razzaq 6-0-27-2 (1 nb, 3 w), Mehmood 6-1-15-0, Arshad 7-0-22-3, Afridi 6.1-0-28-2.

RESULT: Pakistan won by 143 runs

MAN OF THE MATCH: Saeed Anwar (Pakistan)

POINTS

1. Pakistan 4 from 2 matches; 2. India 2 from 2 matches; 3. Sri Lanka 0 from twomatches.

TODAY'S PARTNERSHIPS

PAKISTAN

1ST WKT: 75 in 9.5 overs (Anwar & Afridi)

2ND WKT: 75 in 14.4 overs (Anwar & Ijaz)

3RD WKT: 50 in 12.5 overs (Anwar & Inzamam)

INDIA: NIL.