India's desert woes: Revisiting shadowy Sharjah

#4 Javed Miandad and the start of the endless jinx

Batting first in the finals, Srikkanth and Gavaskar gave India a dream start, scoring 75 and 92 respectively. Dilip Vengsarkar joined in with a half-century and India scored 245 in 50 overs which in those days was considered a good enough total. Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals in their chase but one man hung on. Javed Miandad paced his innings perfectly keeping the scoreboard moving at a steady rate.

Indian captain Kapil Dev, who was the mainstay of the attack always reserved the last over for himself. On this occasion, however, he had made a serious miscalculation. He had brought himself on an over earlier than he should have which meant that the penultimate over of the Pakistan innings was the last in his quota of ten.

A relatively inexperienced Chetan Sharma would then have to bowl the last over. In a wild last over with the batsmen swinging at everything and Mohammad Azharuddin missing a run-out, it came down the last ball with Pakistan needing four to win.

Chetan Sharma aimed to bowl a yorker-length delivery to the wily Javed Miandad who stood well forward anticipating the same. Miandad dispatched the ball for a six. Pakistani supporters were ecstatic while the Indians were shell-shocked.

A lot was said and written about why Chetan Sharma had to bowl the last over and how the great Miandad achieved the impossible.

But, it also started a strange jinx. India could never beat Pakistan in a Sharjah final ever again and found scant success in the group matches too.

The statistics need to be seen to be believed and are fascinating, to say the least.