The choc-a-bloc crowd at the New Wanderers erupted in joy under a sea of tricolours while players and support staff charged onto the field after Mahendra Singh Dhoni did a Kapil Dev and led India to a World Cup glory, though in a different format.
Dhoni wanted to play down the hype surrounding an India-Pakistan tie but in the end, it turned out to be a humdinger, a match of fluctuating fortune and India had the fortune of the brave to end up on the right side of the edge-of-the-seat-thriller.
Misbah-ul-Haq almost single-handedly snatched the match away from India when Dhoni tossed the ball to Joginder Sharma, India's last over hero in the semifinal against Australia.
Joginder started with a wide, followed it with a dot ball before Misbah hit him for a six to up the tempo.
But Captain Cool Dhoni soon walked up to the Haryana all-rounder to calm his nerve.
Misbah went for a scoop in the next ball only to find S Sreesanth at short fine leg and it was all over for Pakistan with an apparent win slipping through the fingers.
An ecstatic Sreesanth threw the ball high up in the sky and screamed in joy while Misbah was no his knees, rooted to the crease as his heroics could not see his side through.
The Pakistani flag at the New Wanderers suddenly vanished as the stadium resembled a sea of tricolours.
It was not a match for those weak at heart and once they had pulled it off, the Indian players were hugging each other, while Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvvraj Singh grabbed a stump each as souvenirs. This was followed by a victory lap.
