SWEET REVENGE

24 yrs ago............in sharja.......india vs pakistan....finals.....one ball six runs to win...javed miandad on strike.....chetan sharma to bowl........and javed miandad does the impossible by hitting the ball over the ropes.....india bite the dust.............


now on the 20th of june 2010.....india vs paksitan........in dambulla, sri lanka.........the ASIA cup........2 balls 3 run to win......harbhajan singh on strike...............mohammed aamir to bowl.........harbhajan singh moves acros and powers the ball over the mid wicket fence in style...........india win and qualify for the finals..........wat a game...........




gautam ganbhir had said that ind-pak matches were decided by nerves and this one proved to be just that......

pakistan had won the toss and had decided to bat...........salmn butt contd his gr8 form against india and scored a good 74 of 85 before being run out........the skipper shahid afridi too got off to a gr8 start by scoring 32 of just 25 but was castled leg before by a slower one from praveen kumar........pakistan managed a respectable and well abv par score of 267 thanks to the quick fire half century by the keeper batsman kamran akmal who made 51 of 41 with 2 4s and 3 6s......

for india praven kumar picked up 3 and harbhajan and zaheer picked up 2 a piece..........


the indian started off slowly as they wanted to hav wickets in hand for the later part .......viru was slow and to add to the miseries of the indian fans viru pulled a hamstring and was eventually dismissed for 10 run off 32.....india were 82 for 2 in the 18th over with virat too bac in the pavillion.......then came in the indian skipper and built a partnership of 98 in 18 overs with gautam which laid the foundation...... gambhir made a good 83 before losing his cool in a verbal exchange with kamran akmal and eventually was bowled by ajmal......dhoni too fell after scoring 56........



with the game going to the wire........suresh raina played a brisk inning of 34 of 27(2 fours and 2 sixes) and india took the powerpaly in the 45th over...........with one over to spare and the powerplay lifted....... 7 runs were req off the last over and 4 wichets remaining ...............earlier in the 48th over bhaji too got into verbal duel ith shoaib akhtar..........


the last over was to to be bowled by aamir....raina on strike and he picks up a single of the first ball..........the second ball was slightly short nd bhaji couldnt get bat to ball and eventully tried to sneak a run......as a result of which raina was found short of his crease and had to return to the pavillion run out.................


4 balls remining and 6 run to get..... walks in praveen kumar.........he steers the ball to third man where shoaib akhtar fumbles which allows the indians to take the second.......praveen then gets off strike the next ball and with 2 balls remaining 3 runs to get bhaji was on strike.......bhaji moves across and belts the ball over the mid wicket fence for a six ....and rest as they say was history............the celebration that followed was even more unbelievable.............

after 24 yrs the nightmares of the 1986 sharja final was washed off and the score settled for good..............................wat a game of cricket.....