When Qadir won Pakistan a thriller!

An eyewitness account of a classic Pakistan v West Indies encounter during 1987 World Cup at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore on October 16th

Dr. Naveed Yazdani

When I along with my wife entered the great Qaddafi Stadium on that bright and sunny day of October, my heart was sad and heavy. Not to do anything with Cricket but with the sad demise of one of the greatest voices of sub-continent, Kishore Kumar. But once the game began my thoughts started to focus on cricket.

It was a crunch game for the West Indians as they had just lost a nail biter against England at Gujranwala a couple of days back. So it was quite natural for Viv Richards to win the toss and opt for batting first. Desmond Haynes was no stranger to us but little did we know about a slim but well built debutant opener Phil Simmons. And it was Simmons who started to take our bowlers on. A score of 90 plus without losing any wicket was quite ominous and we were beginning to get worried when Tauseef Ahmed struck out of nowhere to remove Simmons for a well played 50. Desmond Haynes was getting frustrated against Saleem Jaffar and could not resist coming down the track and was bowled. Richie Richardson soon top edged Jaffar to be held safely by Ijaz Ahmed and Logie also perished without doing much and we were right back in the game with those four quick wickets.

This was a crucial time in the game as “King� Richards walked out to bat. The Lahore crowd had a strange relationship with Viv; they wanted him to score but not many. And when he flicked Tauseef effortlessly for a huge six over mid wicket, Imran was smart enough to read the script and decided to bring himself back. The second ball of the over was an innocuous full toss which was hit so hard by Viv that I lost the ball completely and thought that I had seen the flattest six of my life, but then I realized that everyone was rushing to Saleem Malik to celebrate the dismissal of Viv. Saleem had held on to a blinder and Imran soon brought the jam packed Qaddafi stadium to its feet by removing Roger Harper on the very next delivery. West Indies could not capitalize on a good start and were all out for 216.

A target of 217 was not huge but a teasing one and Pakistan had a shaky start. Mansoor Akhtar, on whom Imran had so much confidence failed yet another time when his stumps were shattered by Pat Patterson but the crowd became dead silent when the in-form Malik fell cheaply to make Pakistan 2 down for 28. A slow and painstaking partnership between Javed and Rameez was cut short when Viv had Rameez caught brilliantly at wide mid on. Viv dived full length to his left to hold a scorcher of a shot from Rameez just inches from the ground. Our hopes of winning the game were really dented when Hooper had Javed caught and bowled. But then came a match turning partnership between Imran and Saleem Yousaf, the gutsy keeper hitting 7 boundaries and brought Pakistan within a striking distance when the game tilted again in favor of West Indies and Pakistan lost 3 quick wickets and entered the last over at 203 for 9. They still had to get 14 runs from the last over with one wicket in hand and only Abdul Qadir left to face the music.

I will always remember this last over bowled by a young Courtney Walsh for two reasons. One of them obviously brought us to our feet when Qadir, against all odds, went inside out to hit Walsh for a huge six over long off. And the other was an extreme act of sportsmanship from Walsh when he only warned the non striker batsman Saleem Jaffar and did not dislodge the bails otherwise it would have been all over for Pakistan. That gesture won our hearts but we burst into an absolute gleeful dance when Qadir steered the penultimate delivery of the match through point to give Pakistan a sensational 1 wicket win. Hats off to Qadir for not losing his cool and collecting 14 runs from the last over. As soon as the winning runs were hit, Viv could not hide his disappointment and lay motionless on the field for quite sometime while Lahoris were basking in the glory of that great victory, the memory of which has never failed to get me excited even today some 18 years later!

Dr. Naveed Yazdani (annyazdani@hotmail.com) is a freelance Cricket writer and analyst.