ON THIS DAY
Follow Us"This is Pakistan cricket, one minute down, next minute up.”
Nasser Hussain famously said these words during the Champions Trophy final in 2017. However, the Pakistan team had defined Hussain’s quote 32 years ago, to clinch their maiden World Cup trophy, on this day in 1992. Pakistan’s greatest triumph in white-ball cricket to date.
They began their campaign on the most disastrous note - a 10-wicket defeat in their first match and being bowled out for 74 in their third. Here is what happened:
First of all, it had the Pakistan President in 1988, General Zia-Ul-Haq play a big role. Imran Khan, Pakistan's captain in the 1992 World Cup, had retired after the 1987 edition. Next year, General Zia requested Imran to return as Pakistan's captain, and Imran accepted the request. However, four years later, Imran went to the World Cup with a severe shoulder injury.
The start of the World Cup was disastrous itself. Pakistan won only one of their six warm-up games and only one of their first five league games in the tournament. Imran had to miss Pakistan’s first game against West Indies, which they lost by 10 wickets. He returned against Zimbabwe (Pakistan won by 53 runs) but neither batted nor bowled. He skipped the next fixture against England, in which Pakistan were bowled out for 74 but then were saved by rain.
They lost their next two fixtures - against India by 43 runs and against South Africa by 20 runs. After five league matches, they had one win, one no result and three defeats. Pakistan’s campaign appeared to be done and dusted. Their next game against Australia was expected to confirm their flight back home.
On the morning of their clash against Australia in Perth, Imran showed up in the dressing room wearing a t-shirt that had the image of a tiger ready to pounce printed over it. To motivate his players, he asked them to play like a 'cornered tiger' as that is when a tiger is at its best - when he is ignored. He wore the same thing to the toss instead of the Pakistan jersey.
The move and his speech worked. Pakistan defeated Australia (by 48 runs), then Sri Lanka (by seven wickets) and then New Zealand (by four wickets) to qualify for the semi-final. The no result against England came to their rescue as Pakistan eclipsed Australia to be placed fourth on the table by one point.
The semi-final against New Zealand seemed to be a lost cause before Inzamam smashed 60* from 37 balls. Inzamam was a raw talent then, having played only seven ODIs heading into his first World Cup.
He was included in the team at the special request of Imran Khan himself who had spotted the potential in him. The skipper told Inzamam to play his natural game without worrying about his spot in the XI. However, Inzamam was undergoing a lean patch in the World Cup (averaged 15.4 in the eight league games) and on the morning of the semi-final, he asked Imran to drop him, having shown symptoms of high fever a day before.
Imran backed Inzamam when the latter didn’t believe in himself and put his name in the XI anyway. “Inzy, don't think about anything else, just think about how you are going to play this game,” Imran replied. Consequently, Inzamam went on to play the most famous knock of his life. Pakistan chased a stiff target of 263 with an over to spare.
By the final, captain Imran had promoted himself to number three to stabilize Pakistan's brittle batting. In the final, he was involved in a 139-run stand for the third wicket with Javed Miandad, the same Miandad who blamed Imran for trying to pull him down.
The two never maintained a good relationship in their career, primarily because Imran replaced Miandad as captain of Pakistan in 1982. They kept their differences aside to bat together for over 30 overs for Pakistan in the final, adding 139 runs for the third wicket in 187 balls.
Inzamam and Wasim Akram cashed in on the foundation led by the seniors, scoring 75 off 53 balls between them. Pakistan set England 250 to chase.
Akram, who had bowled heaps of wides earlier in the tournament, turned the game around with two dream deliveries which broke the back of England's chase. Everything that had gone wrong for Pakistan in the first half of that World Cup was now coming right and they won their first World Cup. The 25-year-old Akram, another prodigy of Imran Khan, was the Player of the Match in the final, scoring 33 off 18 balls and picking 3/49 with the ball.
Fittingly, Imran took the final wicket, dismissing Richard Illingworth, and Pakistan won the final by 22 runs. The cornered tigers turned it around - from one win in five games to five wins on the bounce. The shoulder injury restricted Imran's contribution to 185 runs in six innings and only seven wickets in his 60.2 overs but it was his inspiring captaincy that led Pakistan to the title.
At the presentation, the skipper announced that he would donate his prize money towards the construction of the cancer hospital, which had been his dream project ever since his mother passed away due to the disease in 1985. That day remains to be his last day as an international cricketer - a memorable end after he had earlier called it a day post the semi-final defeat in the 1987 World Cup.
