India's loss to Pak: The ghost of 1985-86 Austral-Asia Cup revisited

Pakistan may still find it hard to believe that it won from a tough against India on Sunday, thanks to the wild swinging of the willow by the mercurial Shahid Afridi. But there is another leaf of history that has emerged that will certainly send a chill down the Indian spine. Call it destiny or coincidence, it is indisputably a classic case of deja vu. And this is how this tale of the 22-yards goes on. [caption id=“attachment_1417515” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shahid Afridi. AP[/caption] The India-Pakistan match in the 1985-86 Austral-Asia Cup was played on a neutral ground like Monday’s. In both the matches Pakistan won the toss and chose to field. As luck would have it, India scored 245 runs in each of these matches. But that is not it. While Indian opener K Srikkanth in the match of the 80s hit 2 sixes, the same feat was achieved by opener Rohit Sharma on Monday. In both the matches, three Indian batsmen scored half centuries. The Pakistani innings suffered two run-outs in both the matches. In the 1985-86 Austral-Asia Cup ODI, Indian bowler C Sharma sent Pakistan’s number 10 batsman Zulqarnain to the pavilion for a first bowl duck. And behold what Aswin did on Monday. Ajmal, the number 10 got out to the Indian spinner in the similar fashion – a first bowl duck. This tale of similarities ain’t over yet. Pakistan’s Javed Miandad had hit 3 sixes in his innings and the last one sealed India’s fate. On Monday, it was Afridi’s turn to hit 3 sixes and the last one that landed out of the park snatched the victory out of India’s palms. Both the matches went on to the last over and Pakistan won them by one wicket. Indeed a deja vu that will surely have the cricketing brains stumped.