How Winning by 59 run instead of 60 Destroyed Pakistan's Hope of becoming Back 2 Back Asian Champion

Introduction There was a time when India actually lost a match to Pakistan and the whole of India celebrated and it wasn’t even a small loss we had nearly been all out a full 59 runs away from the target in a virtual semi finals of the Asia cup An Asia cup where Pakistan were the defending champions And by winning this They could become back to back Asian champion So today We are gonna hear the story of what exactly happened of how Pakistan in spite of defending India in virtual semi finals saw themselves get booted out from a place in the finals 13th March 2004 was the date India Tour of Pakistan 2004 prelude where India after a gap of 15 years Was going to tour Pakistan in some people’s eyes This series was seen as hope Hope that this cricketing diplomacy Could help normalizing the frozen relationship Between this 2 neighbours but a single look at the promotions surrounding this series Would have made it very clear There wasn't going to be anything friendly About this series Absurd Promotions and advertisements war on the pitch time for revenge to even that peculiar Pepsi Ad & it wasn’t just the public mind you In the run up to the series When the Indian players were told That security concerns might get this tour cancelled Nearly half the members of the team spoke in opposition Staunchly stating that they did not want to miss the opportunity Of beating Pakistan In Pakistan Now those were big words especially given the fact That we had not even won A single test match in Pakistan by this point And ODIs weren’t much better In 20 years of playing history we had won just 3 And that’s not even going into Both the team’s Terrible Form the weird slump the team seem to be in losing three finals in a row along with getting defeated three times at home now if there was to be some silver lining to all of this it was that Pakistan seemed to be doing as bad as India first, they get thrown out of the world cup in group stages itself followed by losing the finals of the BA cup and losing a series to South Africa at Home now thankfully This humiliation seemed to have jolted them awake As they would respond to this By defeating New Zealand in New Zealand Winning a test series there after a full decade And the main architects Behind their resurgence their newly made Main Pacers duo Shoaib Akhtar The New Pacer Duo – Mohammad Sami & Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami Ever since the old lineup Wasim and Waqar had been sidelined The Pakistani team had been looking for a new lethal combo And this 29 and 21 year old pair together had the necessary pace To put fear into any opponents they wanted and though this series would be the first time they were to be the main attack on such a large stage in the media eyes this series was to be a battle between the Pakistani bowling And the Indian batting but then The moment this series actually started There was a very interesting pattern The Sami Curse – ODI series That seemed to be developing For some reason Pakistan’s luck Seemed to be in inverse proportion To Mohammad Sami’s form if Sami does well Pakistan loses and if Sami does badly for some reason Pakistan keep on winning let me show you with an example In a first ODI While having a mediocre outing Sami Strikes twice in the 48th over to keep the final tally within Pakistan’s reach But then In spite of having 4 wickets in hand And needing 24 in 18 balls Pakistan go on to lose the match The second ODI is a bit of an outlier Sami performs well Pakistan wins But the third On a pure bowling pitch Sami performs abysmally Their worst bowler by a mile and Pakistan wins the match And then in the last 2 matches of the series Sami seemingly angry with his last matches performance Goes on to put a bowling exhibition Holding a beautiful line Taking out well set batsmen time and again And Pakistan loses both of the matches Sami even after becoming the highest wicket taker of this ODI series Sees his team lose a series to India For the very first time at home Now if you are think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill that all of this can be just a coincidence then let me take you through Curse Continues – Test Series the test series once were a dangerous looking Sehwag is demolishing the entire Pakistani attack the only bowler giving him trouble is Saqlain Mushtaq and then while playing on 68 Sehwag tries to hit him to dig mid wicket Sehwag Dropped – Scores a triple Century were Sami has been put for that exact shot and he drops it Sehwag goes on to score India's first triple century and Pakistan go on to lose that match by an inning now put in contrast the second test was this one were in spite of bowling on a perfect pacer's pitch Sami and Shoaib Akhtar can't seem to hold a line and Umar Gul comes in and tears to the Indian line up and so we come to the final match The series deciding match Sami The batsman Where Pakistan After being reduced to 137 for 8 have Sami coming forward as a batsman Creating a 70 run partnership That sees him nearly complete his half century and then he follows that up by coming out and bowling 3 extremely hostile spells and the reward he gets for this an absolutely plumb LBW of Dravid Not being giving Followed by having a simple catch to Yasir Hamid dropped Resulting in dravid Going on to score a masterful 270 Taking India to mammoth 600 A total that hands India the match by an inning and 131 runs Pakistan Swept at home Not only had India won their first victory in Pakistani soil But they had done so by completing a series sweep so you can imagine The amount of abuse this Pakistani team was gonna get and what would make things even worse was that this was to be the last series of this season meaning that Pakistani public now had months and months to marinate in their anger and resentment anger that was quickly directed to the Pakistani team and their two main bowlers so by the time the break was about to end And the asia cup was about to start The whole of the Pakistani team Had become desperate Desperate to get some revenge for their country Afterall What better way to show their mettle to their nation then to become back to back Asian champions but it was here that they were gonna run into Asia Cup Bonus Point Format a bit of problem cause this tournament put in place a unique tournament formats 6 teams in 2 groups 4 teams qualify in the super 4s where a bonus point system would make things complicated now suppose Team A scores 300 runs in the first inning Then based on the total A bonus point margin is to be given For this example Let's say that the margin is 250 now if Team B is all out before reaching 250 them Team A get's the 5 winning points plus one bonus point but if Team B Manages to cross that 250 mark Then even if they lose the match They will get one point meaning irrespective of who wins There will always be 6 points at play 5 for the winning team And 1 based on the bonus point margin Now when this rule was made nobody was expecting it to be a big deal Afterall With Sri Lanka's form coming into this tournament and it being played at their home they were the outright favourites they were supposed to defeat each and every team in the super fours and credit is where credit is due things went according to plan Sri Lanka first defeating Bangladesh and Pakistan with India defeating Bangladesh but then as soon as the India Pakistan match started Asia Cup – Super 4s – India Pakistan Match Shoaib Malik onslaught A virtual semi finals things took an unexpected turn Shoaib Malik Someone who had this point of time just averaged 27 now would Suddenly decided to emulate Sehwag a near blind onslaught on Indian bowlers were started not giving a care whether he got out or not edges after edges were given regulation stumping missed an through all of these lifelines he somehow managed to last Nearly the entire 50 overs on a ground where in that tournament the highest score posted was 191 Shoaib Malik had single handedly scored 143 runs taking Pakistan to a monumental 300 runs now if this wasn't bad enough Sami's first over was to go for 10 runs Meaning he was gonna have a bad day Meaning.... India Collapse Sehwag got out in the second over Ganguly tried to stabilize the inning but even he departed Followed by Dravid on 94 By the time yuvraj and kaif made their way backback to the pavilion India still had half the runs to go with Sachin and Irfan Pathan being the only batsmen left so frankly speaking The writing was on the wall There was no saving this match Shift In Strategy And so Ganguly and the coach John Wright Came up with a plan If we try to go after the main target the moment Sachin gets out we lose any chance getting to the bonus point and if don't get the bonus point then Pakistan will have the same amount of points India has by the end of this match but whereas Pakistan's next match is against Bangladesh we were to play the unbeaten Sri Lanka who had somehow not even considered a single bonus point and in case just in case we're able to defeat them and get a bonus point then both Sri Lanka and Pakistan already have a much higher NRR than us so in spite of everybody being on the same points we would be the most likely one to get knocked out so the highest chances of actually making up to the finals were to give up on this match give up on this match and just make sure that you get the bonus point and then just try your level best to defeat Sri Lanka the next match that way even if you don't get the bonus point there Pakistan cannot touch us anymore and this strategy quickly found support across the board the new target was 241 241 that's 90 runs in 21 overs and so we had Irfan Pathan and Sachin Tendulkar’s heroic’s all of a sudden test match being played In the middle of an ODI Over after over Dot after dot especially doing this was Irfan pathan who had that point of time had gone above 30 just once in his entire career It looked as if He had fevicoled himself to the crease Simply refusing to move from there Now Pakistan Pakistan responds would quickly on to this tactic but initially they would just allow it to happen because afterall Sachin was there and they had to make sure that India had no chance of actually winning but there after once they were sure they too switched the tactic they are not trying to score so forget about the runs just start targeting the stumps force them to play get them out on the other hand we also had Sachin who had to make sure that their required run rate for the bonus margin does not go out of hand and these two situations Sachin Falls – Pakistan’s Morale Explodes came together to take Sachin's wicket in the 42nd over with India requiring just 27 runs from 42 balls something should have been a breeze by any stretch of the imagination however Indian cricketing history is rife with examples after examples of chases in tournaments much more important than this had been quickly squandered the moment Sachin got out and here Sachin getting out made the Pakistani bowlers who in spite of winning the match were looking as if the wind has been knocked out of them suddenly seeming to get a new life beginning to act the tail enders with a new found vengeance and all of a sudden even the bonus match in target started looking difficult the Pakistani Pacers were bowling with such accuracy such lethality that even getting a single run in an over seemed to be an extremely difficult prospect the gap between the balls and runs was quickly depleting Bhajji fell quickly so that Kumble come close Irfan Pathan would try his level best to protect the bowler on the other end but even his brave defence would come to an end when in the 49th over with India needing 8 runs out of 8 balls he fell Balaji would take a risky double on the last ball of the over bringing the total down to six for six and the much more experienced Kumble to take the strike on the last over Final Over – 6 Runs in 6 balls and bowling to him with the aim of shutting down all Indian hopes taking revenge for everything that he had been through you had Mohammad Sami And I know what you are asking How exactly was Sami bowling till this point in this match ? Well, Let's get the answer From the last over itself The first ball A Dot the second ball a dot again The third A desperate Kumble with a wild swing that somehow connects for a four two required from 3 balls Now normally You would expect the baller to get frustrated especially Sami who had been through so much but frankly speaking he must have gotten used to it by this point Luck was never on his side When india was standing against him So he just seem to shrugged it off and once again bowled a perfect ball two required in 2 and then came the ball that was gonna change the entire complexation of this match a near perfect ball once again hits the pads The batsman go for a desperate leg by run ball is already in Moin Khan's hand and he misses one run in one ball Last ball what happens next frankly after saying so much for so long I’m just gonna let the tape run and let you feel what sami must have felt in that moment two perfect balls two leg bys 2 perfect stumping opportunities and India Reaches the target By losing by 59 runs instead of 60 They had gotten the bonus point Aftermath And as you can imagine That one bonus point in the end made all the difference Sri Lanka for the first time in this entire tournament lost to India wherein the final table looked something like this Pakistan In spite of having a much higher NRR than India in spite of defeating India had lost on on the finals The months long humiliation of Pakistan had finally been completed