The greatest purpose of Sport was to develop Friendship in a world which was encompassed with political rivalries .Tht is why the Olympic games came into prominence.Sadly from the last Century particularly in the last few days Sport is hardly the sport of the conventional sense and become a war.In Cricket,which was traditionally a gentlemans' game this trends was similar.2 rivalries in Cricket became like WAr.One was the Ashes between Australai and England which originated in the 1880's while the other was the post partition India-Pakistan Cricket rivalry.Ind-Pak Cricket rivalry surpassed the tension or the spectacle of the Ashes,arousing greater emotions.

            The ultimate enthralling climax of team sport is to witness the fiercest battles for supremacy,where in the last moments any result is possible.The contsets is so intense that in the end no individual team has morally won but the sport!In Cricket no contests displayed this battle for supremacy till the very end more than the 1986 Australasia Cup Final in 1986.This is the 20th Anniversary yaer of that event.

India ,were on a high ,winning 4 major one -day tournaments -The Prudential World Cup,the Asia Cup,the World Chmpionship of Cricket and the Sharjah Rothman sCup.They won the Rothman's cup bowling out the Pakis for 87 after scoring 126.However the last time Pakistan had beaten them in the 3 nation trophy led by Imran Khan.India had some near escapes upto the final agaisnt New Zealand and Sri Lanka.and Pakistan had played the best.Both had batting till no9 and allrounders of quality.

India won the toss and elected to bat.Gavaskar and Shrikanth gave India a brilliant start tearing the Pakistan bowling to shreds like a racing car going on at full speed at the sratrt of a race.Fundamentalll ,being a test match batsmen Gavaskar made a superb adaptation to the shorter version of the game and hsi strokes reminded one of those ke executed against West Indies  on their 1983-84 tour.He executed classical drives.Shrikanth pulled,cut ,slashed and hooked  in cavalier fashion before being caught of Qadir for 75.Vengsarkar also made a useful 50 and India seemed ready to put the shutters on Pakistan  at 216 for 2 wickets and seemed set to amass a huge score with 10 overs to go.

However like a driver slowing down a car to half of it's speed.,the Pakistani's bowlers displayed immaculate skill and hardly allowed India to mantain the tempo.Instead of scoring at 7-8 runs the Indian batsmen were struggling to make evn 4-5 runs.Wasim bowled  superb yorkers  and the Paki Bowlers gave a superb exhibition of what control can do in the final overs when the opponents are carrying out a batting onslaught.(feature of Pak bowling in the last slog overs in times to come)India slumped to 245 for 7 wickets.Wasim Akram bowled Kirti Azad,Ravi Shastri and Dilip Vengsarkar ,while Imran claimed thewickets of Gavaskar and Kapil Dev-the 2 pillars of Indian Cricket which is significant.Gavaskar and Kapil Dev could well have launched the final asault and delivered the crushing blow.Still,it was a formidable total.

.Pakistan made a shaky start.Mohsin Khan was bolwed for 36.Mudassar Nazar leg -before for5 and Rameez Raja bolwed for 10.Salim Malik joined Javed Minadadat 61-3 and they gently took the score along to 136 before and  Salim Malik was run -the score book  now read 110 -4 wickets.134 were now needed   from 20overs.

Abdul Qadir came in to join Javed Miandad.Javed superby steeered singles while Qadir launched the occasional blow.They took the equation to 85 from 10 overs..With 65 runs wanted Qadir was caught  for a well supporting 34 and Imran Khan came in.

.Like a tiger waiting in an ambush for a long peroid with great calculation and then jumping on his prey at the appropriate time Javed  launched  his onslaught with 51 required of 5 overs.He  executed  2 superb boundaries and 14 runs were scored in  the 36th over ..He took the score  with Imran to 209 runs On the last ball of the 35th over Imran was bowled trying to hit the ball out of the ground and got bowled..37 runs were needed in 4 overs now. With 3overs to go 31 runs need.Miandad again launched a flurry and took 13 runs of the over.Above all he reached a his hundred-oneof Cricket's epics.

THe question is would Javed  win the game and write a script for Pakistan.Mansoor Elahi fell of the penultimate over and 11 were reuired of the final one.The last over was the equivalent of an entharlling climax to a Hollywood classic.

After one  run was scored on the first ball Wasim Akram is run out.10 runs now needed .Miandad pulls a superb boundary through mid wicket.

 6 runs now needed of 4 balls .A loose ball is pulled through sqaure leg and seems certain to be racing to the boundary.Roger Binny dives and stops the ball to allow only a single,amongst all the excitement and flurry in the crowd.

5 runs now in 3 balls .Zulqarnain flashes and is bowled .

Tauseef Ahmed comes in .The first ball he gets touches some part of bat and rolls towards cover point.Tauseef scampers off for a single.Azharrudin picks up the ball and throws it to the non-strikers end.The ball misses the stumps by a whisker and Miandad gets the strike.

4 runs are now needed of the last ball.The atmosphere was undescribable as though a war was being waged which was reaching it's very end and anything could happen.Most appropriately commentator Iftiqar said"India has not won the match or Pakistan.It is Cricket that has won.'Chetan Sharma delivers the last ball -a full toss which Javed Miandad pulls over the sqaure leg fence for 6!The most sensational IndoPak cricket battle has ended ina Pakistan win with a 6 of the last ball!

Javed Miandad was not a cricketer that day,but a soldier.He displayed nerves of steel  and was like a commander who led his batallion which was awaiting certain defeat against the enemy.He chose the right balls to hit and placed his singles with great precison and launched a most timely assault.He executed singles with the precison of a surgeon while delivered blows towards the end like a boxer crushing his opponent. He gave a lesson not only of  the role of temperament in Sport  but in all fields of life.To me because of Javed Pakistan deserved to win.However the greatest winner was Cricket-not India or Pakistan!

       This  was the start of an era of Pak dominance over India led by Crickets equivalent of a general Imran Khan.More than anything they had won the psychological battle.not only agaisnt India but for conquering teams all over.It took 5 years for India to gain an outright win against Pakistan!It also wrote  a new epoch for Pakistani  in one day Cricket which culminated in their 1992 world Cup win.Pakistan had been 2nd favourites in the 1st 2 world Cups  and came so close in 2games to throttling the world champions the West Indies,losing games they looked to have won.On the day of the Australasia Cup final a red letter was not written only for Cricket  but India and Pakistan's history and relations  in general.Great sportsmanship was shown.Long Live Cricket!

Toss: Pakistan
Umpires: DM Archer (WI) and AJ Gaynor (WI)
Man of the Match: Javed Miandad
Man of the series: SM Gavaskar

India innings (50 overs maximum)                                R   B   4  6
K Srikkanth           c Wasim Akram      b Abdul Qadir         75  80   8  2
SM Gavaskar                              b Imran Khan          92 134   6  0
DB Vengsarkar                            b Wasim Akram         50  64   0  1
KBJ Azad                                 b Wasim Akram          0   3   0  0
*N Kapil Dev                             b Imran Khan           8   8   1  0
C Sharma              run out                                  10  10   1  0
RJ Shastri                               b Wasim Akram          1   2   0  0
+CS Pandit            not out                                   0   2   0  0
Extras                (lb 6, w 2, nb 1)                         9
Total                 (7 wickets, 50 overs)                   245

DNB: M Azharuddin, S Madan Lal, Maninder Singh.

FoW: 1-117 (Srikkanth), 2-216 (Vengsarkar), 3-216 (Azad),
     4-229 (Kapil Dev), 5-242 (Sharma), 6-245 (Shastri),
     7-245 (Gavaskar).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Imran Khan                  10      2     40      2
Wasim Akram                 10      1     42      3
Manzoor Elahi                5      0     33      0
Mudassar Nazar               5      0     32      0
Abdul Qadir                 10      2     49      1
Tauseef Ahmed               10      1     43      0

Pakistan innings (target: 246 runs from 50 overs)               R   B   4  6
Mudassar Nazar        lbw                b Sharma               5  22   1  0
Mohsin Khan                              b Madan Lal           36  53   4  0
Rameez Raja                              b Maninder Singh      10  15   0  0
Javed Miandad         not out                                 116 114   3  3
Saleem Malik          run out                                  21  37   0  0
Abdul Qadir           c sub              b Kapil Dev           34  39   1  1
*Imran Khan                              b Madan Lal            7  10   0  0
Manzoor Elahi         c Shastri          b Sharma               4   5   0  0
Wasim Akram           run out                                   3   4   0  0
+Zulqarnain                              b Sharma               0   1   0  0
Tauseef Ahmed         not out                                   1   1   0  0
Extras                (lb 11)                                  11
Total                 (9 wickets, 50 overs)                   248

FoW: 1-9 (Mudassar Nazar), 2-39 (Rameez Raja),
     3-61 (Mohsin Khan), 4-110 (Saleem Malik),
     5-181 (Abdul Qadir), 6-209 (Imran Khan),
     7-215 (Manzoor Elahi), 8-236 (Wasim Akram),
     9-241 (Zulqarnain).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Kapil Dev                   10      1     45      1
Sharma                       9      0     51      3
Madan Lal                   10      0     53      2
Maninder Singh              10      0     36      1
Shastri                      9      0     38      0
Azharuddin                   2      0     14      0