da bwin： Watching the 1996 India-Pakistan World Cup semi-final brought home the similarities between the two master ODI chasers
da heads bet： Sidharth Monga06-Apr-2020 the best in the business at it.” Gavaskar is quick to point out Miandad has not played for two years. When the equation gets particularly difficult, Khan, the other half of perhaps the greatest love-hate relationship in cricket, says a Miandad ten years younger would have pulled it off.However, the Indian team, the crowd, even the commentators, are not so sure. They have been at the receiving end so often they can’t breathe easy till they see the back of Miandad. And Miandad is not taking any risks. Instead Rashid Latif hits Javagal Srinath for a six and a four. In the next over, to the 53rd ball he faces, Miandad hits a straight boundary, the first of his innings. Look at his swagger now. He struts back, knocking gloves with Latif on the way. If you have lost unlosable matches to this man, this is a triggering sight, never mind that his strike rate has only now crossed 50, and the asking rate is nine.
It is the belief that they can still do it that sets them apart. It is this belief that has to one day become their downfall. It happens to the best of them
Miandad knows his presence at the end is crucial: analyse every situation, fight, take games deep is his cricketing philosophy. Once Latif falls, though, carrying as he was what two men should have been carrying, the spotlight turns on Miandad. He tries the big hits but they don’t come off. And he eventually runs himself out. A tame end to a tame last stand.Why it is so relatable is because we witnessed something similar at the World Cup last year. MS Dhoni is Miandad in many ways. He finds motivation in persecution, although he doesn’t make public shows of it. As a 50-over batter he has struck the same kind of fear in the opposition that Miandad once did. Which is why, despite being aware of his waning powers – much like Pakistan with Miandad – India invested in Dhoni at the 2019 World Cup.Just like Miandad, Dhoni was happy for others to do the hitting around him, Ravindra Jadeja in this case. They both left alone balls in tall chases, just that Dhoni did so in an era of memes. Dhoni didn’t make a comeback after an absence, but it wasn’t yet ruled out in a pre-Covid-19 world that Dhoni might come back to the IPL after chilling for a year and then go to the T20 World Cup. As things stand now, both players ended with run-outs, risks taken much sooner than they liked to take, a sign of faltering confidence in their own ability. Not before both had struck momentary fear in the opposition. Admittedly, Dhoni hadn’t deteriorated as much as Miandad. According to Hardik Pandya, he was kicking himself for not diving.To some, watching them meet an unsatisfactory end (though Dhoni hasn’t officially ended yet) might be painful, but I haven’t found myself wishing either had retired sooner. These matches are just a rite of passage. Miandad and Dhoni didn’t become the players they were by recognising defeat when they saw it. Four years before the 1996 World Cup, Miandad was not even selected – by Khan – but not only did he find a way to get into the side but also ended up as the second highest run-getter in the tournament, and his side’s highest.It is this belief that they can still do it that sets them apart. It is this belief that has to one day become their downfall. It happens to the best of them. Unlike champions, this process never gets old. RetroLive