Published: Mar 04, 2015, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 04, 2015, 05:52 AM (IST)
March 25, 1992. Pakistan vanquished England as Imran Khan lifted the Cup. In this article Arunabha Sengupta recalls the magic of Mushtaq Ahmed during the course of a magnificent victory.
The 1992 World Cup final. Melbourne Cricket Ground filled to the brim. Our memories are dazzled by images of Wasim Akram tearing in to bowl, like a hungry unleashed tiger, the ball darting back at express pace and rattling the stumps of Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis one after the other, off consecutive deliveries.
We look further back, at the Pakistan innings. We recall the canny Imran Khan promoting himself, shielding his young guns from the new ball with his old pro Javed Miandad for company, and then young Inzamam-ul-Haq coming in to play his second blinder in as many matches.
[read-also]247101,247132[/read-also]
What is often pushed to the rear stack of our recollections is the gem of a spell of mesmerising leg-spin googly by Mushtaq Ahmed.
The match was still in balance. England were on their way to recovery after the early Akram-Aaqib Javed dents. The enormously experienced duo of Graham Gooch and Graeme Hick were at the crease. And the phenomenally gifted 21-year-old leggiewas brought on and immediately cast his spell of wizardry on the game.
Hick saw one pitch short, his eyes lit up, he leaned back to cut. He missed the ball by a foot and more. He had not read the googly and the result made him look like the perfect novice. The ball spun a mile into him and struck his backfoot plumb in front, while his bat hung in the airfar from the scheme of things, playing at the expected leg-break. The finger of the umpire was more of a formality.
The break achieved, Pakistan seldom loosened the vice-like grip. Mushtaq accounted for Gooch as well. And with Lamb falling to Akram after a defiant stand with Neil Fairbrother, and Lewis following next ball, it was all over bar the proverbial shouting.
And now, Mushtaq was unleashed again, and the magic flowed unabated. Dermott Reeve, an honest hitter of the ball, found it too complex an art to unravel on that grand stage. The man from Warwickshire was struck on the pads, misreading a googly. The following ball was floated up outside off. Reeve played for the googly, going down on his knees, changing his grip, trying to bring off a foolhardy reverse-sweep. He missed it by a couple of feet, the ball spinning away, going into the gloves of Moin Khan.
Fast bowlers, when confronted with attempts at audacity, often glare at batsmen, take a step or three towards them, exchange a few cutting pleasantries. Mushtaq, the impish young leggie, produced perhaps what can be called the leg-spinner’s equivalent. He stared at Reeve with mocking eyes, stuck out two thumbs and waggled them at the batsman. Perhaps the exact meaning of the predominantly sub-continental gesture was lost on the Warwickshire man, but the thought behind it was clear. Mushtaq had let him know in no uncertain terms that such methods could not hurt him. Hit him? The batsman could not even touch the ball.
He got his man soon enough. Reeve knelt down and slog swept him past deep midwicket for four. And then he stepped out aiming for the vast unguarded off-side boundaries. The spin took it away from him, the ball struck the leading edge, went spiralling in the air, and Rameez Raja ran around from cover to pouch the skier.
The end came soon enough and Imran held aloft the glittering cup. Akram, with 33 from 18 deliveries and three crucial strikes bagged the Man of the Match award.
However, Mushtaq’s figures of 10-1-41-3 remain an exquisite pearl in the crowning glory. And that gesture with the thumbs at Reeve remains one of the most hilarious, seldom recalled, memories of the tournament.
Brief Scores
Pakistan 249 for 6 in 50 overs (Imran Khan 72, Javed Miandad 58, Inzamam-ul-Haq 42, Wasim Akram 33; Derek Pringle 3 for 22) beat England 227 all out in 49.2 overs (Neil Fairbrother 62, Allan Lamb 31; Wasim Akram 3 for 49, Mushtaq Ahmed 3 for 41) by 22 runs.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)
