The score 5-0, a walk down memory lane

I had written about India – Pakistan rivalry and some very personal moments associated with the same and sent it to Indian Express by email. Little did I expect that the article would get published verbatim! The exhilaration of coming across this article in the 'Time Out' section on a Monday morning, in the crowded suburban local of Mumbai cannot be explained in words! Those memories did not cover, for some strange reason, the World cup wins over our arch rivals.

Here’s a walk down memory lane – prompted by the semi-final win.

1987: The match that never happened

I start off with a match that all of India was looking forward to, eagerly in anticipation of the mother of all finals. However, Graham Gooch and Steve Waugh ensured that that was not to be. The budding Steve Waugh put paid to Pakistani fans hopes with a gritty and calculated innings, scoring 18 runs off the last over – exactly the margin of the defeat! On this side, Gooch swept and how! Rumours of fixing on hindsight (when the Prabhakar expose came to light) aside, Gooch literally swept India off the world cup. We were stationed at the school gates to regulate traffic at the end of the day, when yours truly promptly managed to position myself at the gate that overlooked a house that had the TV set on! Distinctly remember the heartbreak of seeing Azharuddin’s stumps broken and with it went the match

1992: Miandad stealing the show for the wrong reasons!

We all eagerly looked forward to watching this match at home. After the heart break of the 1 run loss to Australia (thanks to supreme running skills of Mr. Muscles - Venkatapathy Raju!), came the first ever World cup encounter between India and Pakistan. Tendulkar played well (when has he not!) and got us to a decent total. Remember Srinath’s fiery pace getting a few and Miandad doing a Misbah of waiting forever before the charge! But the image ingrained in every one’s mind would be Miandad’s clown act of jumping, to get back at Kiran More (no idea what this meant though!)

1996: Oh yes, Jadeja and Prasad!

Watched this match at our landlord’s place! Jadeja’s blitz against Waqar was to be seen to be believed. Sidhu had laid a good foundation early in the innings. Prasad getting back at Aamir Sohail immediately after the taunt to pick the ball up from the fence was the turning point of the match. We bowled and fielded well. What I will never forget is that after the match, the 80 year old ex-army man staying across from us, woke up from his sleep to enquire at about 10 pm as to who won! The look of contentment that he gave when told the result would stay in my mind forever! No one knew of how wretched things would get in a few days when we would lose shamefully to Sri Lanka!

1999: Prasad does it yet again!

Not many remember this match that was held in Manchester. I remember Azharuddin batting quite well and that Pakistan were not in the chase fairly early, thanks to Prasad’s leg cutters and slower than usual bowling! We won, in the shadow of the Kargil war.

2003: Who can forget this one?

This was the evening/night before our convocation. Watched Pakistan build up a near imposing total in between rounds of catching up with friends, batch mates and a few others for one last time! We were also busy packing since we were leaving the city in just 2 days. We watched the first 5 overs of the Indian innings in the executive guest house on campus where parents and uncle/aunt had come over for the convocation. India was off to a rollicking start with Sehwag and Tendulkar mauling Akhtar and Waqar for 54 runs of the first five! It was time to leave for the pre-convocation dinner! At the buffet, no one had time for the sumptuous fare that was on offer! Professors, parents and students gobbled whatever they could manage enquiring with one another the current status of the Indian chase. The campus administrators had put up a huge screen adjacent to the football ground and we all watched and celebrated a successful chase! It was exhilarating stuff!

2011: Déjà vu start and great finish!

They had put together a big screen to project the TV feed for the 1st semi-final itself at the office cafeteria. Anticipating huge numbers, they tried to move the same to the open air seating gallery for the Wednesday clash. Thanks to logistical issues of bright light hampering the clarity etc, better sense prevailed. Better sense on hindsight I felt, because the atmosphere in the enclosed space was to be seen to be believed. Every table in the cafeteria at least had at least 8-10 people standing, not to mention one person standing per chair! This was in addition to the seating arrangements, which were already taken! The roar that accompanied Sachin and Sehwag when they entered the ground was louder than a Chinnaswamy or even Mohali, I guess! Sehwag ensured that our minds went back to 2003 with a blitz that helped India put up 47 in the first five! And when he perished, most of the crowd, including yours truly disappeared. That is when one felt (a la Ravi Shastri!) that the mantle has been passed on from Sachin to Viru! Gone were the days one watched and switched off till Sachin batted. The new Sachin grafts, builds, anchors and occasionally attacks whereas the old Sachin’s baton has been taken over by Sehwag!

Reached home to see a typical, customary, a wee bit selfish at times, play by Harbhajan and Zaheer. But, Raina still had enough parts of his brain working to ensure that we reached a total that even by Saurav’s objective observations was 10 – 20 runs below expectation!
Who would have thought that Nehra and Munaf of all people would stick to the basics and did not succumb to adrenaline! Or maybe, it was because their adrenaline levels are normally so low that the intensity of playing Pakistan got them to play ‘normal’ cricket unlike a majority of the team including Sachin who succumbed to the negative effects – read over cautious approach, when it came to key moments.

For me, Viru and Raina’s batting, Munaf and Nehra’s bowling and Yuvraj, Virat and Raina’s fielding in the inner circle were the takeaways. And yes, to quote Sidhu ‘you do not murder people who are committing suicide’ summed up the batting of Pakistan. Misbah, again to quote Sidhu, tried to be the ‘living beggar, rather than the dead emperor’ and it proved quite costly.

I have heard that matches between these two teams do things to people. I was witness to one such incident. Wife who has absolutely no interest in cricket ensured that she kept her eyes wide open and more importantly, glued to the TV, since whenever she was ‘actually’ watching, is when the Pakistanis committed hara kiri or for that matter, even Nehra and Munaf bowled good line and length balls!

The score then is 5 – 0 for India. At some time, the first ‘goal’ against us will be scored. Will it be in Australia in 2015? Let us hope not ….!

For most of my friends in the North, it doesn’t matter now if we win the final and are crowned World Champions or not! We have won the ‘mother of all matches’. For us in the South, who have been largely unaffected by the Partition and the terrorist attacks launched and supported from across the border, we would like Dhone and co. to go that bit farther this time. And yes, avenge the 1996 semi-final!