Cricket: From the Far End

How much difference can a match make? If Javed Miandad’s six created a long lasting dominance over India, Tendulkar’s six reversed that trend. Of late you don’t see pressure on Indian team when they play Pakistan. In fact mostly it’s the opposite.

Obviously it hasn’t been that way always. India versus Pakistan ODI encounters can be looked at in three phases:

First was the time when these teams started playing each other until the famous Sharjah match of 1986 where Javed Miandad hit a six off the last ball Chetan Sharma bowled. The win-loss percentage is almost even between these teams until that match. Two of the most memorable games until then were the Benson and Hedges cup final in 1985 and the immediate next match in Sharjah where India won despite having made only 125. Overall India had a little upper hand, winning crucial matches until then. Looking at cricinfo statistics, India won 8 and Pak won 7 in this period.

Then the Sharjah final happened. Miandad’s six not only took the game away from India, it seemed to also take any hope of ever winning against Pakistan away. The whole Indian team seemed to have gone in some spell and it was evident in the following ODI series in India in that year when even when India was in control it used to seem inevitable that someone from the Pak team would just thrash the bowling/batting as the case may be and win it for Pak.

Then followed a long period of almost 17 years of Pakistan dominance over the Indian ODI team. Even when most players from the team changed, the baggage seemed to carry on. Apart from the three memorable world cup wins of 1992, 1996 and 1999 India didn’t win any important game against Pak in this period. Playing in Sharjah was even worse. In fact looking at cricinfo stats I was surprised that India managed to win four games in this period against Pak at Sharjah. I had thought it would not be more than a couple. The only big Sharjah win India had during this time was the game in 1996 when India for the first time scored 300+, when Tendulkar and Siddhu had a big partnership. Statistically, India won 21 and lost 45 in this period. Most importantly most Pakistani players raised their game against India whereas for Indian players it was the opposite.

At least it wasn’t as bad as England in Ashes prior to 2005 where a whole generation of players started and ended their careers without tasting considerable success against their main opponents. Since around 1996 a bunch of new players came in the Indian team some older players had succeeded in the first half of their careers (like Kapil, Srikkanth) while some did later (Dravid, Tendulkar).

Then came the game that turned it around again - The world cup 2003 match where everybody knows what happened. One largely unnoticed thing is this - Shoaib Akhtar had dominated the Indian batting in 1999 (remember when he had Dravid and Tendulkar bowled off consecutive balls at Kolkata?), after this match he has not been effective against India at all. One upper-cut six, one flick for four and another “defensive” straight shot for four followed by removal from attack by his captain was all it took!

This match and the series in the following year that India won seemed to have cleared off all the baggage. Now players like Yuvraj Singh, Sehwag thrived on Pak attack, even Tendulkar suddenly became much more successful against them since that world cup match (Tendulkar against Pak prior to that match: 43 matches, avg 36, 2 centuries. Tendulkar after that match: 23 matches, avg 45, 3 centuries and 3 great match-winning 90s). Also captaincy by Ganguly (”Never mind the goodwill, we are here to win”) probably transformed the nice humble losers into fighting warriors. That legacy has continued through Dravid’s and now Dhoni’s leadership.

So the order has been restored in last five years, with India winning 16 and losing 15. But more than that India achieved two things it never did against Pakistan - winning a series against Pakistan and also at home.

The one thing India has not done at all recently in ODIs is beating Pak in a final. Dhoni has done that though in the world Twenty20 final and the ongoing Asia cup provides another opportunity if both teams make it.

So continues the most popular ODI rivalry of current time (I would say India-Australia is the test equivalent).