Asia Cup 2018 : India Vs Afghan ~ a Tie

The dress code for  the Noble dinner is  ~ Gentlemen :  white tie and tails, while ladies should be dressed in an evening gown. This is the perfect time to dress up and look like royalty! Wearing your national costume is an alternative to white tie and tails or evening gown. 

A Tie !!  .. .. it was once a rarity – it has occurred only twice in Tests  - the first of its kind between Australia and West Indies in Dec 1960 and the other one at Chepauk Stadium in Sept 1986 when Greg Mathews got Maninder Singh out.   Yesterday at Dubai the score card would read :  Afghanistan 252 for 8 (Shahzad 124, Nabi 64, Jadeja 3-46) tied with India252 (Rahul 60, Nabi 2-40, Rashid 2-41) ~ more than the card, it was   an epic thriller when India's middle order unravelled, leaving them seven to get off the final over, bowled by Rashid Khan, with just one wicket in hand.

After refusing a single off the first ball, Ravindra Jadeja slog swept the second ball over midwicket. It seemingly hit the ad skirting on the full and had Rohit thinking it was a six in the dressing room, but after several replays TV umpire Rod Tucker ruled it a four. Jadeja then knocked the third ball to square leg for a single, leaving No. 11 Khaleel Ahmed, who was only playing his second ODI, exposed. Leaving cover open, Rashid unfurled a googly, which Khaleel inside-edged to short fine leg and hared across to the other end. Then, with one needed off two balls, Jadeja lost his head and slapped a rank half-tracker into the lap of Najibullah Zadran at deep midwicket - the only man in the deep on the leg side. A game of extremely fine margins resulted in the 36th tie in 4046 ODIs.

KL Rahul and Ambati Rayudu had launched India's reply with a 110-run stand for the first wicket. But the middle order tapered off and two incorrect lbw decisions from umpire Gregory Brathwaite hurt them further. When Dhoni wore an offbreak from part-time spinner Javed Ahmadi on the pads, it seemed to be heading down the leg side, but he was given out for 8. Then, just as Dinesh Karthik was bedding in, he was given out lbw, too, for 44. This was a more glaring error from umpire Brathwaite, with ball-tracking suggesting Mohammad Nabi's offbreak would have probably missed an extra set of stumps down leg.

In One dayers there have been 36 and India has featured in 8 of them

Remember the 11^th  match Group B of the WC 2011  - the  match was a real humdinger and went down till the last ball – a tall scoring match at that  676 runs – 18 wickets.  It was rank poor performance by Indian bowlers not able to defend 338.  The ground fielding was poor, slow movers, bad throwing arms, slackened attitude.   With only 12 balls to go, England were 310/7 – tail enders Bresnan and Swann at the crease and 29 required.   It was Piyush Chawla – a dot ball and then second was swept by Swann for a huge six.  The fifth ball Bresnan hoisted him over midwicket for another six.  15 conceded and in the last they required 14 off 6 with 2 wickets in hand.  That match also brought the comic 2.5m rule to the fore.

Earlier on 6^th Dec 1991, at Perth – the falling West Indies with a line of Desmond Haynes, Philo Wallace, Richie Richardson, Brian Lara, Carl Hooper, Keith Arthurton, Malcolm Marshall, David Williams, Curtly Ambrose, Cummins and Big Patterson.. chased 127 – the fall of wickets were to read : Fall of wickets: 1-0 (DL Haynes), 2-23 (PA Wallace), 3-25 (RB Richardson), 4-55 (CL Hooper), 5-55 (KLT Arthurton), 6-61 (BC Lara), 7-69 (D Williams), 8-76 (MD Marshall), 9-113 (CEL Ambrose), 10-126 (AC Cummins)

To those who commented Kapil in making Chetan Sharma bowl that last over to Miandad at Sharjah – it was Perth – 50 over match – Kapil Dev had figures of 2/30; Manoj Prabhakar 1/30;  Javagal Srinath 2/27 & Subroto Banerjee 3/30 (and all of them had completed their quota of 10) – so 41^st over – Sachin was called to bowl by Azharuddin, who had no control on what was happening. Sachin gave 5 in 5 and off the last ball had Cummins beautifully caught in slips by diving Azhar.  A tie at Perth !

On Apr 30, 2014 - Statistically, Rajasthan Royals made  152 for 5 (Rahane 72) tied with Kolkata Knight Riders 152 for 8 (Gambhir 45, Faulkner 3-11) ~ then came the Super Over….. KKR made 12 (yes only 12 in 6 balls) were all out – RR too made 12 – so tie in Super over too. 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

26^th Sept 2018.