It was the 1992 Cricket World Cup. India and Pakistan were for their first time facing each other in the biggest carnival of world cricket. Javed Miandad was already a famous name. Six years ago, his last ball six, off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah had already scripted his name in the history of India-Pakistan cricket forever. On this day, Miandad again made himself to the headline during the clash between the arch-rivals in World Cup 1992.
Sachin In Rescue
Electing to bat first India was not in a very comfortable zone. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Although Md. Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja initially tried to give a fight and took the score to a hundred. Imran Khan, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed made Indian batsmen earn each run. Later it was a young Sachin Tendulkar who came in the rescue. A partnership of 62 runs between Sachin and Kapil Dev gave the much-needed momentum to the Indian innings. Kapil went out for a 26-ball 35 and Sachin remained unbeaten on 54 from 62. Kiran More played a special role here. He sacrificed his own wicket to save Sachin from a run out for the sake of the team. India finally managed to set a target of 216/7.
The Chase
Pakistan began the chase and lost Inzamam-Ul-Haq too quickly and were on 8-1. The one down batter Zahid Fazal did nothing to improve the situation and left for the pavilion with Pakistan’s score 17-2 on board. Another opener of Pakistan cricket team, Aamer Sohail kept on looking for someone to build a partnership with and finally found Javed Miandad. They started rebuilding the innings. It was hard to score runs. Indian bowlers were tremendous, and special credit should be given to the swings of Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar. With Javagal Srinath and Venkatapathy Raju, the opponent’s batsmen did enjoy a good period but still at the end of 25th over Pakistan were on 85 for 2.
Miandad Vs More
This was making Miandad nervous and unsettled. On the other hand, behind the wicket, Kiran More was keeping the batsmen under pressure with his sledging and constant appeals. Miandad tried to nudge a delivery from Sachin. More shouted, leaping up and down appealed to the umpire who was clearly not interested. When Tendulkar ran into the bowl again, Miandad suddenly turned toward More and they had an exchange of words. Once again, thanks to the umpire David Shepherd that the situation didn’t even get a chance to become worse. He made sure that the teams continued to play.
Miandad pushed the next ball, went for a single and made a quick comeback to the crease. Meanwhile, the throw came quickly and More whipped off the bails. This did not amuse Javed Miandad. This is when Miandad attempted to mimic Kiran More. He went through some peculiar leaps that are remembered as one of the slapstick moments in the history of cricket. He executed several spot jumps to showcase how More was appealing. Obviously, it didn’t look nice on the 22yeards.
Eventually, India won the match by 43 runs. Between Miandad and More, the Indian keeper had the last laugh. He was involved in a stumping, a runout, and pouched two catches. The match referee Ted Wykes asked the team managers to sort things out. This, fortunately, helped both Miandad and More escape the situation without any penalties.