I DEDICATE MY CENTURY TO WOOLMER-YOUNIS

It was Younis Khan’s excellent batting that saw Pakistan level the five-match ODI series against India as the tourists successfully chased down 322 with one ball to spare.

It was undoubtedly, one of the best knocks in Younis Khan's career and he choose to dedicate it to his late coach Bob Woolmer.

"I want to dedicate my century to Bob Woolmer. The way he worked with us for so long was commendable. He always wanted me to do this. This is for him," said Younis after the second One-Dayer.

Elaborating on his brilliant innings off 117 off 110 balls, studded with nine fours and two sixes, Younis said modestly, "I can’t hit big shots so I score through reverse sweep and stuff like that. I have to steal my shots as I am not a big hitter of the ball, like Misbah or Afridi."

The day that saw about 640 runs being scored on a good track, the Pakistan vice-captain said that his team was always confident of chasing India's total.

"We always knew that we had a chance. Had India posted some 340 plus runs, it would have been a problem. But we knew that they had been 20-30 runs shorter and one big innings would get us nearer to the target. And we knew our middle-order was good and we had to give last 6-7 overs to Afridi," said Younis, who hit his third ODI century career in Mohali.

But he disagreed that it was him or Afridi who turned it around for Pakistan.

Giving credit to pacer Umar Gul, the 29-year-old said, "On this wicket, 350 would have been a huge ask. So I would say that Umar Gul’s second spell proved crucial. Getting the breakthroughs in the form of both the set batsmen - Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir at the right time did the trick for us. Had those two been there the score would have automatically accelerated to 350. And chasing another 20-30 runs would have been difficult."

Younis, meanwhile, refused to term Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to bat first after winning the toss as a wrong one.

"The decision to bat first was a brave one and it was a positive decision. I don’t think there was anything wrong in that. They failed to get their partnership going in the middle and that ultimately went against them. Shoaib and Gul bowled really well in their second spell to restrict the Indians."