New Delhi: The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the fiercest in the world of sport. While a tense diplomatic relation has laid its foundation, a common cricketing heritage continues to fuel it even today.
It has grown manifold over the years ever since the first Test was played between the two countries at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi in 1952.
There have been several incidents where things have boiled over just trivial matters. One of them is the final of the Austral-Asia Cup played in Sharjah on April 18, 1986.
More than 36 years have passed since Pakistan’s Javed Miandad smashed Chetan Sharma for a last-ball six to win the final.
Riding on Kris Srikkanth (75 off 80), Sunil Gavaskar (92 off 134) and Dilip Vengsarkar’s (50 off 64) brilliant performances, India posted 245/7 in 50 overs. For Pakistan, Wasim Akram claimed three wickets, while captain Imran Khan took two.
Pakistan were off to a sluggish start as they lost three wickets for 61 runs. Coming in at No. 4, Miandad steadied the Pakistan innings and slammed a magnificent century.
Pakistan needed four runs off the final ball to win the match. Chetan Sharma decided to go for the yorker. But it turned out to be a full toss which Miandad calmly struck for a six. The sight of him running back to the dressing room with his arms aloft after hitting the shot has not been forgotten by fans from both sides.
Miandad has described the incident in his auto-biography, ‘Cutting Edge: My Autobiography’.
He wrote, “I knew that he would try to bowl a yorker, so I decided to stand just ahead of the crease� poor Chetan Sharma. They say he did try for a yorker, but the ball slipped out of his hand. Or perhaps it was the fact that I was standing well forward of the batting crease that threw him off his length.
“Whatever the mysterious origins of that last delivery, it ended up being the perfect ball for me and for Pakistan — a full-toss at the right height, slightly towards leg, all I had to do was take a swing and it sailed out of the ground. After that, it was pandemonium. We had won, Pakistan had won, Tauseef had won, I had won. What a match! It is one of the best memories of my life.”
For Chetan Sharma, it was a moment he never forgot. Perhaps, a moment he has never been allowed to forget by the cricket fans.
_IANS
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