Jan 05, 2001 04:34 PM
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April 18, 1986. Political tensions between the two countries had prevented either cricket board from hosting the other since India's 1984 tour of Pakistan, which was cancelled midway, after Indira Gandhi's assassination. In the 1986 one-day tournament - the first Australasia Cup, held in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates - the two teams from the subcontinent, India and Pakistan, were not scheduled to face each other unless they met in the final. Which they did. The New Zealand, Australian and Sri Lankan teams were gracious enough to lose their matches in the opening rounds, giving millions of fans the final they really wanted.
Gavaskar scored 92, Srikkanth made 75 and Vengsarkar 50. When the third wicket fell, India had already reached 216. By contrast, Pakistan lost its first three wickets for 61 runs. Wickets continued to fall regularly, and the required run rate crept up to 10 an over. But Javed Miandad, at one end, was scoring steadily, reaching his century in the penultimate over. With Wasim Akram then a promising young all-rounder partnering Miandad, and three wickets in hand, it looked as if Pakistan had a chance, even though it needed 11 runs off the final over.
Chetan Sharma was brought on to bowl the last over. Sharma's figures leading into that over were a respectable 8-0-37-2, and he had no way of knowing that he was just one over away from the end of his career. The over started as well as the Indian supporters could have expected. Wasim was run out, and Zulqarnain, the wicket-keeper, came in to bat at number 10. In the fourth ball of the over, with five runs needed, Zulqarnain went for a wild shot and was bowled. At that point, Sharma might have been feeling good about things. Miandad, on the other hand, looked homicidal as he shouted at the departing Zulqarnain that he should have taken a single and given Miandad the strike.
Tauseef Ahmed was the last man in. With two balls remaining and five runs needed, Tauseef knew that he had no option but to take a single off the first ball he faced. Sharma bowled, Tauseef nudged the ball towards cover, and charged down the track. Azharuddin picked up the ball cleanly and tossed it at the non-striker's wicket. A direct hit would have left Tauseef stranded. Azhar missed.
And so it was down to Sharma versus Miandad. One ball remaining, four runs needed for victory. I remember one of Sharma's team-mates (was it Kapil?) massaging his shoulders, trying to get him to loosen up, while his other team-mates clustered around with words of encouragement. Miandad paced up and down, bat in hand, muttering to himself. The fielders took their positions. Miandad must have seen immediately that it would be all but impossible to hit a four, because the field was placed to allow singles but to save a boundary.
Sharma bowled. A full toss. Miandad struck the ball. We heard the commentator, Iftikhar Ahmed, say, ''He's hit that!'' and before the ball even cleared the boundary line, Miandad raised his hands skyward, yelled ''Tauseef!'' and started running down the pitch as the commentator, Mushtaq Mohammed, screeched: ''IT'S A SIX!''
It was much more than a six. Prior to Sharjah, Pakistan had lost six of their nine one-day matches against India. After Sharjah, Pakistan was to win eight of the next nine matches between the two, including five on Indian soil. By the time the one-day world cup began in 1987, just a year and a half after that six, only the West Indies with players such as Richards, Haynes and Walsh were more favoured than Pakistan to win that ultimate one-day tournament.
But even these facts and figures don't sum up the way that match at Sharjah changed the psyche of Pakistani cricket. After Sharjah, both the team and the fans came to believe that there was no such thing as a losing position. Victory was always possible, even if it required something as improbable as Saleem Malik scoring 72 runs off 36 balls in Eden Gardens, Calcutta, against the Indians (who, many said, lost that match because of the ghost of Sharjah), or bowlers and fielders coming together to take six English wickets for 15 runs, sending the English team crashing from a very comfortable 206 for 4 to 221 all out (at the World Cup in 1987).
