India will take on Pakistan in a blockbuster Asia Cup 2022 clash on August 28. The two countries have shared a rich cricketing history and even though bilateral series between India and Pakistan are currently at halt due to political tensions, their games precede enormous fanfare. Both sides have had a host of memorable encounters in the past and while India hold the upper edge in ICC tournaments, Pakistan lead in the overall head-to-head charts.
One of Pakistan’s wins against India which is often revisited because of the game’s dramatic end came in 1986, when Javed Miandad had famously hit a six on the final ball off Chetan Sharma with four runs required. It was the final of the Austral-Asia Cup and former India captain Kapil Dev, who was the skipper of the side in that game, revisited the heartbreaking loss for the side during a segment, Frenemies on Star Sports.
The former India all-rounder, in a conversation with Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram (who was also part of the side’s XI in the game), revealed that the defeat had a disastrous impact on India over the next four years!
“That famous game, where you (India) were on course to score 270. But then, I got three quick wickets and you eventually scored 245,” Akram began the story.
Kapil, then, jumped to the final over of the match. “We thought we should have 12-13 runs to defend in the last over of the match. It was a very difficult task, almost impossible in those times.
“When the last over came, we went to Chetan. To this day, I still feel it wasn’t his mistake. They needed 4 runs on the last ball and we decided that it would be a low yorker. There was no other alternative. He tried his best, we all tried. It turned out to be a low full-toss. Miandad kept his backfoot intact and connected it. Even when we remember that today, we can’t sleep. That defeat crushed the whole side’s confidence for the next four years. It was very difficult to make a comeback from there.