It was the month of March in the year 1996 and my class five annual exams were due to start in a few days time. Owing to my annual exam, family outings were restricted during this period and my play time was also curtailed.
One fine Friday evening, my uncle who used to live outside India called us to inform that he would be visiting Mumbai that weekend and my parents decided that we should meet him on Saturday at his brother’s house.
Till this point, it seemed to be a good weekend and I was happy at the prospect of an outing during this exam period. My mother then came with the first of the two bad news of the day. The news was that I will have to take my mathematics book along with me and study for my annual exams at our relatives house.
The Wills World Cup 1996 was in its knock-out stages and by now I had started following cricket. Even though I was religiously supporting India in the World Cup, I did not have much idea about the famous India-Pakistan rivalry. But my parents who were also keen cricket followers knew a thing or two more than me about this rivalry.
No match until you finish your mathematics preparation
Coming back to our weekend plan, the Saturday in question was the day of the quarter-finals between India & Pakistan to be played in Bangalore. Hence, it was decided that we would leave our house in time to watch the entire match at our relatives house.
At least, I thought it would be “we” who would watch the match. But my mother came with the second bad news of the day that I will have to first complete my studies in order to watch the match. In other words, I will not get to watch the match. So, it would be “they” who will watch the match and not “me”.
I tried my best to negotiate this diktat that I should be allowed to watch the match initially in case the Indian team bats first. But my mother was not in a mood to bargain.
So, when we reached our relatives house just before the toss; I was praying to god that India should bat second. Unfortunately for me, god had other plans; Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin won the toss and decided to bat first.
The start
So, while the Indian openers Navjot Singh Sidhu & Sachin Tendulkar were taking guards to face Waqar Younis & Aaqib Javed; I was opening my first chapter of mathematics. The only concession my mother gave me was to allow me to watch the score after the stipulated time interval.
The definition of this interval obviously rested with my mother. India had made a good start and I was trying to accelerate my pace at mathematics so that I could watch the remainder of the Indian innings.
After some time, my aunt came and announced that Tendulkar had reached a century. I knew this was improbable given the fact that he was in his 20s only fifteen minutes back. So, I could sense that something was wrong, and the thing that was wrong was that Tendulkar had departed.
There was a big commotion in the house as everyone was worried that India’s chances of winning the match had gone down with Tendulkar’s wicket. This was a normal scenario with the Indian batting in the 1990s.
Jadeja’s onslaught and I get to watch the match
I went back to mathematics and Siddhu took control of the proceedings in Bangalore. He was eventually out for 93 runs. As the Indian innings was approaching its end, I was also close to calling it a day in the field of mathematics.
That’s when my mother had a change of heart and she told that I could watch the death-overs of the Indian innings. Well, this change of heart was actually the result of the assault that Ajay Jadeja was carrying out. He took more than 20 runs of a Waqar Younis over and scored 45 runs off only 25 balls. Thanks to Jadeja’s onslaught, India ended up scoring 287 runs in 50 overs.
The players went for the innings break and I quickly finished my mathematics session just in time before the start of the Pakistani innings. The way Pakistani openers started their innings, it seemed to me that I was better off studying rather than watching the helpless condition of the Indian bowlers.
And when Pakistani captain Aamer Sohail pointed fingers at Venkatesh Prasad after hitting him for a boundary, elders in the house were contemplating shutting off the television sets.
Prasad gets Sohail just in time
Their discussion was not yet finished when Prasad bowled Sohail off the very next delivery and there was a sudden change of atmosphere Bangalore as well as in the house. My meagre understanding of the game told me that this was a very big wicket.
From then on, Indian bowlers kept chipping in with wickets at regular intervals. My elders probably had the 1986 Sharjah match in mind in which Javed Miandad with a last ball six had single-handedly won the match for Pakistan.
So, although Indians were in the driver’s seat; it was not until Miandad’s run-out that celebrations actually started in the house. After his wicket, Anil Kumble took care of the tail and Pakistan eventually scored 248 runs to lose the match by 39 runs.
The grand celebrations and a memory to cherish forever
Till now fireworks had meant Diwali for me. But as soon as India won the match, fireworks started in the neighbourhood although it was still some months to go before Diwali. My father and uncle decided to take a tour of the city to take a stock of the celebrations.
So, we set out in our Maruti 800 to witness the celebrations across Mumbai. One of my cousins also managed to get an Indian flag which added flavour to our celebrations. It seemed as though the entire city was celebrating. There were slogans like “Lahore mein bhi jeetega” (We will win in Lahore too) as the final of the World Cup was to be played in Lahore.
What we had forgotten was that there was a semi-final to be played before the team could travel to Lahore for the finals. Sadly, India lost the semi-finals to eventual champions Sri Lanka and the World Cup dream was shattered.
It has been 20 years since that eventful day in the March of 1996 but the memory of the match and the entire euphoria around it is still clear in my mind as though it happened yesterday.
It was my first taste of an India-Pakistan encounter and it had lived up to its expectation. The two countries have played a number of memorable matches since then and will probably play many more in future, but this particular match will always hold a special place in my heart.
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