Top five ODI knocks by a Pakistan batsman against India

4. Ijaz Ahmed (139 runs off 84 balls – Lahore, October 1997)

If there ever was an innings that smacked of brutality and unbridled aggression against the Men in Blue, it was Ijaz Ahmed’s blitzkrieg in the third ODI that not only won the game for his side, but also secured the three-match bilateral series in the hosts’ favour.

After Ajay Jadeja’s steady 76 pushed the Indian total to 216, Pakistan came out firing on all cylinders. Surprisingly, captain Saeed Anwar did not open with Shahid Afridi; instead, the portly Ijaz walked out with the young all-rounder for the chase.

And what followed was complete mayhem. Right from the word go, Ijaz hacked at everything sent down to him by the likes of Kuruvilla, Mohanty and Robin Singh.

He literally toyed with the Odisha pacer (Mohanty for the uninitiated), who was wayward with his line and fed him enough width to free his arms and unleash his brutal vengeance on the poor white ball that was used that day.

Skipper Tendulkar brought on his spinners Rajesh Chauhan and Nilesh Kulkarni, but Ijaz’s brutality only ratcheted up a notch. He lofted sixes left and right, using strong bottom-hand grip and his own powerful forearms to generate high bat speed. He never moved out of fifth gear despite the spinners slowing down the pace of the ball.

Shoulders in the field began to droop despite valiant attempts by Chauhan, who was the only bowler to go under seven runs an over. Indian fans looked a disconsolate lot, after Ijaz completed his century and hit the winning runs off Sourav Ganguly, rounding off the nine-wicket victory in style.

Yet another series was lost under Sachin’s captaincy and India really seemed to be staring down the barrel with no relief in sight.