Do you remember where you were when…? When Pakistanis of my generation say this to each other there are several ways in which the sentence might end: when Zia was killed; Bhutto was hanged; democracy returned; Pakistan went nuclear; troops withdrew from Kargil; the military took over, again. But, more often than not, the sentence ends: when Miandad hit that six.
April 18th, 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.
In those days, before the field restrictions in the first 15 overs made it easier to bat aggressively, India’s total of 245-against a bowling attack which included Imran, Wasim and Qadir-was more daunting than it might now appear. 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 ten an over. But Javed Miandad, at one end, was scoring steadily, reaching his century in the penultimate over of the game. 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 they needed 11 runs off the final over to win.
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