He was the odd one out in that pack of five; and after the bowl- out against Pakistan Friday night, he did stand out — with his celebratory mannerisms, with yet another ‘match-winning’ performance.

After the Oval blitz with the bat, Robin Uthappa bowled India to victory this time around. He laughs his heart out at the statement. “Match-winner with the ball, I enjoyed that, for sure,” he says.

Everyone at the ground loved it when Uthappa took a bow each in all directions to soak in the appreciation. He took the crucial third hit and made it 3-0 to virtually clinch it for India — and soon, Shahid Afridi’s miss meant India had defeated Pakistan.

“It wasn’t complicated at all. I just had to hit the stumps,” he says, while pleading not to ask him to pick one of the two as his best. “This was a perfect match for Dhoni to start as captain; a perfect India-Pakistan match that had everything you could ever ask for.”

Earlier in the day, Uthappa’s 50 had given India a fighting chance to shake off an early exit in the group stage and put up a decent score on the board. “Twenty20 is completely different from one-dayers, I didn’t like Twenty20, man,” he says.

India became the second team in the history of Twenty20 International to win by bowl-out as they defeated Pakistan 3-0, after Sreesanth’s sensational last two balls helped India restrict Pakistan to 141 and tie the match.

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