India and Pakistan first met in the final of a 50-over tournament back in March 1985, during the Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket, in Melbourne. India defeated Pakistan easily by eight wickets. Ahead of the 2017 Champions Trophy final at The Oval on Sunday, between the same teams, we look back at The Hindu ’s match report of the Melbourne final, by R. Mohan . This appeared on March 11, 1985.
India's wondrous capacity to achieve in overs-specific cricket was in evidence once again. It did not shock the cricket world or turn it upside down like it did in the World Cup in 1983. It was expected to win the final of the Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket against Pakistan.
It did so in another exposition of applied allround cricket Such a result of course, may have been least predicted when the side left home for this visit Down Under. The subsequent improvement in performance had installed India as the firm favourite for the final. The Indians lived up to expectations, achieving a conclusive win to fully re-establish their credentials in one-day cricket. The sport's eternal elusiveness and its own inconsistency frustrated Pakistan. Its early batting debacle meant Pakistan could not give its bowlers enough to bowl with.
The Indian bowlers were not spectacular but they were consistent, the greatest virtue of their operation being their accuracy. In an average opening spell, Kapil Dev picked up three wickets. L Sivaramakrishnan had his best spell in the championship. His length, like that of the slow-medium seamers Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal was always right and he freely experimented with his line and his googlies to pick three for 35.
Pakistan's main weapon fails : With Srikkanth playing a typically aggressive innings in his own patented style, there was little danger of India batting at below capacity. The only live threat was Imran Khan and he bowled too short at a time when wickets alone could have made any substantial difference to the state of the match at the Melbourne Cricket ground today. The atmosphere was ideal and free of tensions and the achievement of an anticipated result lent more credibility to India's known potential to perform well abroad.
The very successful opening pair of Srikkanth and Ravi Shastri were associated in their second century stand in the championship. They saw through Imran's opening burst with great caution. The rest of the Pakistan bowling could, under the circumstances, pose no challenge Shastri played in a cramped manner with the thought of being near winning a flashy car perhaps weighing heavily on his mind. He achieved his ends though.
Srikkanth blazes away : Srikkanth cannot be bound to conventional defensive methods for long. One extraordinary stroke saw him launch himself on a trial of brazen and aggressive strokeplay. Having taken his front foot forward against Naqqash, he found the ball pitch shorter than anticipated. He waited a mini-second before bringing his bat through on a massive and powerful downswing to clear the fence at wide mid-off for 6. The odd stroke may have just eluded the fielders on the on-side but Srikkanth can string together attacking shots in one-dayers as well as anyone in world cricket today. Srikkanth stepped down the wicket for a lofted offdrive off Wasim Raja for another 6. Poor Rameez Raja, running side on crashed into the hoardings and was lucky to escape with just minor injuries to his ribs.
Sunil Gavaskar (middle) with team mates Srikkanth (Left) and Ravi Shastri (Right)
Another lofted drive saw Malik help it over the fence (missing a clear chance) for what can be called an 'assisted 6 . Srikkanth was denied that with umpire Tony Crafter signalling only 4.
Before he square-cut a kicker from Imran just to the left of Wasim Raja at point, Srikkanth had already compiled a knock of 67 off just 78 balls with the two 6s and six 4s. He had outscored Shastri almost three to one.
Shastri plays the anchor: After two early glides to fine-leg of Naqqash and Hafiz for 4s, Shastri crawled to his half-century in 131 balls. It was percentage batting that was slightly exaggerated but with Srikkanth on the path of aggression all Shastri needed to do was play the anchor.
A record crowd for a one-day match in Australia not featuring the home team (35,296) could have hardly noticed the sun had gone down and that the lights had come on. The tempo of the proceedings was not the kind to fire enthusiasm but as India neared victory, the crowd went into raptures cheering every run while it awaited another magic moment of India's self-realisation in limited-overs cricket.
Mohammed Azharuddin had some problems with his timing on a wicket which was a shade slow but once again offered some movement. The bowlers enjoyed this. On one occasion, Azharuddin edged Imran's outcutter and wicket-keeper Anil Dalpat let it through as he grabbed at the chance too avidly. Azharuddin stayed to play a lofted straight drive and a mid-wicket drive for 4s before Naqqash brought one back on him and bowled him through the gate. With the crowd booing the slow cricket that Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar played, the opener smartened up to pull Mudassar Nazar wide of long-on for his third 4.
The victory came in the 48th over but there was no doubting its decisiveness as much as the quality of India's performances throughout this tournament cannot be doubted. Shastri, who won the 'Champion of Champions' prize, gathered his unbeaten 63 off 149 balls. Srikkanth was adjudged 'man of the match'.
The Pakistanis batted themselves into a corner with very poor shots in the opening overs. The substantial recovery was made possible by the 68-run stand between Imran and Miandad.
A cruel decision : It was a fortuitous happening in the sense that Imran was certainly caught behind down the leg-side off his gloves as he swung into a hook off Chetan Sharma before he had scored. Ray Isherwood turned down the appeal for no apparent reason and Pakistan, which could have been 33 for five crossed the 100-mark in the course of the 134-ball stand. The decision was a cruel one for India but it must be said that both Imran and Miandad were in no mood to repeat the mistakes of those who preceded them in the order. The early slide was not easily explainable in bowling terms save for the fact that there was much accuracy in the attack.
Mohsin Khan was the first to go flicking an intilted delivery (from Kapil Dev) without control and putting the bail right into Azharuddin at backward square leg. The somewhat nervous fielder just made the catch with the tips of his fingers as the ball was about to slip out. Mudassar chased a ball which might have been called 'wide' had he not nicked it to Viswanath in looking for a pointless square-drive against Kapil's outswinger. Rameez Raja followed Mudassar's example in flicking Chetan and Srikkanth made a good catch of it at backward square-leg, taking the ball ankle-high and to his left.
Earlier, Qasim Omar had played all a natural outswinger of Kapil on the middle stump to be bowled by a ball of full length. Miandad had caved the hat-trick just keeping a Kapil bouncer down. Of the first four wickets, perhaps only the ball that bowled Omar truly deserved a wicket.
Chetan bowls within himself : Chetan, who had to take Roger Binny's place because the all-rounder developed high fever this morning from a viral infection, bowled well within himself. His early leg-peg line was giving away runs through flicks or leg byes. Once Chetan settled his line, he offered Kapil the right type of support. A gamble with spin at a point when Imran and Miandad were content to hang on and wait to reconstruct the innings might have been better indicated. Gavaskar chose the line of containment and since Madan Lal and Mohinder Amarnath bowled to a perfect length, rarely giving anything for the drive, his job of choosing when to have his spinners on was made that much tougher.
Of the two batsmen. Imran was the more dynamic. He drove hard into the deep for good-looking runs while Miandad battled in typical fashion with a secure defence and safe strokes. Till the 29th over, India was well in control but in the next four, when a Pakistan offensive was launched, 29 runs came in a flow. The fielding would have had to be more inspired if a break was to be made.
However Chetan was not quick enough to move in from long-leg when Imran swept Shastri in the air. Under the circumstances and when Pakistan was regaining the initiative. Imran virtually committed suicide.
Gavaskar's direct hit beats Imran : Pushing forward to Sivaramakrishnan and working the ball directly into Gavaskar at point, barely 15 yards from the bat.
Imran came too far down the track for a non-existent single. Miandad sent Imran back but Gavaskar's throw was perfectly on target as India's captain hit the only stump he could see from that angle. A lofted on-drive off Madan Lal and a sliced cover-drive off Shastri were Imran's only boundary hits in 67 balls. Miandad did not wish to drop anchor once some momentum had been achieved. He had one lusty sweep off Shastri for 4 while Saleem Malik had a charmed existence in the middle for 14 runs off 14 balls. Shastri put Malik down at extra-cover off Sivaramakrishnan. However, that missed catch did not prove expensive as Malik drove into long-off without quite getting to the pitch of a leg-break. Chetan made amends for the earlier lapse with a well-judged catch on the run from the fence to take Malik
Smart stumping: The batsmen had crossed before the catch was taken and immediately Miandad (92 balls, two 4s) was beaten by a superb leg break which floated away from the bat and broke sharply across to set up a stumping for the smart wicket-keeper Sadanand Viswanath who has not missed much in this championship. He had the bails off in a flash. Naqqash had a unique stroke to save the hat-trck. He lofted Sivaramakrishnan just beyond the reach of Mohinder near the long-on fence.
Legspinner L. Sivaramakrishnan was one of the finds for India in the tournament
Naqqash had a swipe at Shastri outside the offstump looking to loft over the in-field and he was caught behind. Sivaramakrishnan fed Anil Dalpat with a deliberately floated leg-spinner wide of the off-stump and the batsman drove into Shastri at extra-cover. India had eight overs to preserve its record of bowling every side out in the championship.
Wasim, Hafiz hold on: Wasim Raja and Azeem Hafiz. who came in in place of Wasim Akram who had chipped an index finger at the nets last evening, added a useful 31 off 47 balls without being over-ambitious In fact. Wasim was content to 'eave as much strike as Hafiz wanted. One lofted drive off Sivaramakrishnan in the final over was the only sign of Wasim's true batting capabilities. Neverthelss, 176 was a long way from 33 for four and applied batsmanship was the key to the recovery.
An article by Australian journalist, titled "The night the Aussies couldn't ignore", appeared in The Sportstar dated March 30, 1985. Here's an extract:
It really was a most odd evening in the annals of Australian sport. Here we had 10 Hindus and one Muslim representing India, and 10 Muslims and one Hindu wearing colours of Pakistan and battling for a gold cup and a purse of Rs. 2,88,000, an offer because the State of Victoria was celebrating its 150th birthday. It is unlikely many of the combatants could have provided a potted history of Victoria and confirmed that Melbourne was once named Batman's Village after the English gentleman who founded it. This correspondent, who has been in India for the celebration of the Ranji Trophy golden jubilee late last year, was, like most Australians, sceptical about the chances of both India and Pakistan.
Disconcerting : Undoubtedly it was the most peaceful of the 15 exchanges between the two countries. There were a few policemen, but not thousands brandishing lathis. And there were no intruders on the field, no missiles were hurled and no shamiana or furniture went up in flames. Indeed, the players may well have found the quiet disconcerting.
Although they were, of course, delighted so many people attended. To complete the rare happening—the first meeting of the two countries away from the sub-continent and the UAE—we had the people feasting on meat pies and tomato sauce rather than samosas and pakoras and the like. The pies were washed down by beer.
While the evening may have represented a culture shock for all involved it was an occasion to savour, one that perfectly illustrated how this extraordinary game can embrace all people, in all situations, at all times.
