The scramble - Miandad and Co run India down
Sunil Gavaskar made two hundreds in the game but finished on the losing side as Pakistan pulled off a last-afternoon chase of 164 inside 25 overs, led by Javed Miandad and, especially, Imran Khan, who saw them home at the end with some mighty hits
01-Mar-2005
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Electrifying passages revisits ten great passages of play that exemplify the intensity and passion of the rivalry between India and Pakistan ...
Sunil Gavaskar made two hundreds in the game but finished on the losing side as Pakistan pulled off a last-afternoon chase of 164 inside 25 overs, led by Javed Miandad and, especially, Imran Khan, who saw them home at the end with some mighty hits.
Zaheer Abbas
The match had seemed to be heading for a draw really. The Indians batted the final day with Sunny scoring a brilliant ton, and when we went out to bat after tea, we had to make 164 to win in about 25 overs. It seemed difficult but the chase at Lahore [second Test] had helped us.
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The atmosphere was simply electric. The crowd had built up through the day and it was just amazing. Asif Iqbal was promoted to open - a good move - and Javed Miandad went in one-down. I remember most the running between the wickets between Javed and Asif - it was unbelievable. They were conjuring runs out of nothing and the Indians looked like they didn't know what to do. There weren't as many boundaries in the innings as you would expect. It was like one-day running but ahead of its time.
Then when Asif was out, no one really worried that much. Imran went in and very calmly swatted Bishan Bedi for two sixes and a four in an over to seal it. The crowd and the players just went crazy. It was amazing to be a part of something like that.
Zaheer made 42 in the first innings. Interviewed by Osman Samiuddin
Karsan Ghavri
We could have easily drawn the game. But Bedi was trying to buy wickets, especially that of the in-form Imran, who was blasting the bowlers to all corners. There were no quotas in terms of how many overs we needed to bowl. Time was the prime factor - and we could have bought some had two fast bowlers operated from both ends. Sadly, our captain, Bedi, didn't think so.
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When Pakistan started their chase, their intention was never to go for the victory. But as the runs started coming, and with lots of wickets in hand, both Imran and Miandad started going for their strokes.
Towards the end Imran went berserk as Bedi kept trying to woo the batsmen out. His thoughts were ki bhai, kitna marega ... ek marega, do marega ... ek mistake kiya aur he will be out. It was clear that in trying to buy Imran's precious wicket the plot was lost, and the Pakistani batsmen benefitted from that.
Ghavri made 42 and 35 and took two wickets. Interviewed by Nagraj Gollapudi.