March 13, 2004 – A nerve-wracking Pakistan-India thriller in Karachi

The year 2004 will remain a special one for India and Pakistan’s cricket fans as both the teams faced in a full bilateral series in Pakistan for the first time in 15 years. India toured Pakistan in 1997 but only for a 3-match ODI series. In 2004, the arch-rivals faced off in a 5-match ODI series and a 3-match Test series.

March 13, 2004 – Pakistan vs India in National Stadium, Karachi:

The Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss and elected to field first on a batting paradise. The tour started with a 10-ball over from Shoaib Akhtar which included two wide deliveries and two no-balls. Sachin Tendulkar scored the first runs off the bat with a boundary on the on-side. Tendulkar hit a six and four off Akhtar’s bowling before getting out to the same for 28. India made 69 by the time of maestro’s wicket in only nine overs with Virender Sehwag hitting boundaries from the other end.

Naved-ul-Hasan’s first over turned out to be a disaster as he overstepped five times in the first six balls he bowled. Sehwag hit four boundaries in the over that yielded 24 runs as the opener completed his fifty in 40 balls and India’s 100 came up by 10.2 overs only. Naved took the revenge by cleaning up Virender Sehwag but not before the Delhi batsman scored a 57-ball 79 with 15 boundaries to put India at 142/2 in 14.2 overs. India set towards posting the first ever 400+ ODI total before Naved sent back Sourav Ganguly (45) and Yuvraj Singh (3) in consecutive overs.

Both the left-handers were back in the hut with India 220/4 on the board after 28.4 overs. Some sensible batting from Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif helped India to finish on a good score. The pair put on 118 in 115 balls before Dravid was deceived by a slower delivery of Akthar when on 99 (104 balls with 8 fours). Kaif got out in the final over for 46 as India ended up with 349/7 in 50 overs which is pretty much less when compared to the start they received from their top three.

Pakistan lost both their openers for 34 by 8th over in a big run-chase. The experienced duo of Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq unleashed a counter-attack over India’s left-arm spinner Murali Karthik and the part-timers. Yousuf fell for a 68-ball 73 but not before adding 135 in 20 overs for the 3rd wicket. The Pakistan skipper shared another century stand with Younis Khan to put the hosts on the top. The 4th wicket partnership worth 109 runs in only 87 balls. Inzamam was caught behind off Kartik after a superlative 102-ball 122 with 12 fours and two sixes.

Younis got bowled after missing a full toss from Kartik while Abdul Razzaq was deceived by a slower one of Zaheer Khan after a quick 16-ball 27. Their efforts brought down the equation to 28 runs off 20 balls in favour of the hosts. Pakistan inched close to a win by scoring 18 runs in 12 deliveries with twos and threes. Shoaib Malik was sent back on the penultimate delivery of the 49th over a well-judged catch from Kaif after nearly colliding with Hemang Badani.

Ashish Nehra took the job of defending nine runs by taking over the ball from his captain Ganguly and said: “Dada (Sourav), mein dalta hoon, aap daro mat. Mein match win karke dunga”. (Don’t worry. I will win us the game) The left-arm pacer gave away only three singles on the first five deliveries as Pakistan needed six from the final ball with Moin Khan on strike. The Pakistan coach Javed Miandad tried to guide Moin to hit a six from the pavilion like he did in the famous 1987 Austral-Asia Cup final.

However, the keeper-batsman could only hit a full toss on the stumps straight into the hands of the extra-cover fielder. Pakistan’s finished with 344/8 which was the then highest ODI total while chasing and the match aggregate of 693 runs was also the highest at that time. Both the record got broken during the famous Johannesburg ODI in 2006 where South Africa chased down Australia’s 435 to win the ODI series in their backyard.