PTI
 
Multan, Feb 16: An inspired India showed little mercy as they decimated Pakistan with an emphatic five-wicket victory to clinch the one-day cricket series with an invincible 3-1 lead here on Thursday.

After bundling out the hosts for a paltry 161 in 41.5 overs, the Indians romped home with as many as 17.3 overs to spare to record their second consecutive one-day series triumph on Pakistani soil since the historic tour in 2004.

It was an awesome all-round display by the visitors who relied on newcomer Rudra Pratap Singh (4/40) and Irfan Pathan (3/26) before captain Rahul Dravid (59) and the in-form Yuvraj Singh (37) made useful contributions to steer the team to a facile victory, leaving a capacity crowd at the Multan Cricket Stadium shell-shocked.

Young guns - Suresh Raina (35 not out) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2 not out) - provided the finishing touches to a remarkable triumph built around exemplary team work.

The Indian dressing room erupted in joy as Raina pulled part-timer Imran Farhat to the boundary to fetch India the winning runs in what turned out to be a lop-sided contest.

The visitors could not have chosen a better venue to deliver the knock-out punch, coming as it did in the hometown of captain Inzamam-ul Haq who top scored for the hosts with a defiant 49.