da betsson： If ever proof is required that one has to be innovative to win limitedovers matches, the MRF World Series game between India and England at Kanpur in October, 1989 provided it
da bet7： Partab Ramchand31-Jan-2002If ever proof is required that one has to be innovative to win limitedovers matches, the MRF World Series game between India and England atKanpur in October, 1989 provided it. And it was the Indian captain KSrikkanth’s gamble of promoting tailender Chetan Sharma to No 4 that led to India scoring an improbable victory, the winning runs being scored off the first ball of the penultimate over. When the teams took thefield, it was conceivable to put England in the favourites’ circle. Forone thing, they had won all their three previous games against SriLanka, Australia and Pakistan with a degree of comfort. India on theother hand had arrived late for the tournament after completing theirengagements in Sharjah. They had scored a narrow six-run win over SriLanka in their opening encounter before losing to the West Indies.
When Srikkanth was second out at 65, Chetan Sharma, whose normalposition in the strong batting line-up would have been No 11, walked outto join Navjot Sidhu. Almost immediately, he had a stroke of goodfortune when Robin Smith failed to catch him on the boundary. Thepocket-sized medium pacer had made only three runs then.
Put in to bat, England were given a good start with openers Graham Gooch(21) and Wayne Larkins (42) putting on 43 runs. The main substance ofthe innings was provided by the fourth wicket partnership of 130 runsbetween Allan Lamb (91) and Alec Stewart (61). Stewart reached his halfcentury with a six off Chetan Sharma and after he was run out, Lamb, whofaced only 109 balls, played some sparkling cricket to engineer 55 runsfrom the last five overs. Thanks to this blitzkrieg, England were ableto post a challenging total of 255 for seven in 50 overs.India too were given a good start with openers Srikkanth (32) and RamanLamba (16) putting on 41 runs. When Srikkanth was second out at 65,Chetan Sharma, whose normal position in the strong batting line-up wouldhave been No 11, walked out to join Navjot Sidhu. Almost immediately, hehad a stroke of good fortune when Robin Smith failed to catch him on theboundary. The pocket-sized medium pacer had made only three runs then.Far from being unnerved by the early let off, Sharma did pretty muchwhat he liked with the bowling, which was in the hands of Angus Fraser,Phil DeFreitas, Eddie Hemmings, Gladstone Small, David Capel and Gooch.He shared a 105-run third wicket stand with Sidhu who was run out for61. Joined by Dilip Vengsarkar, Shrama really turned on the heat. Someof his shots were little more than slogging but none could question hisbold and enterprising approach. Fortune favours the brave and Sharma hadanother stroke of luck, surviving a run out chance when 74. A littlelater, Gooch dropped a catch. Riding on his luck, Sharma dominated afourth wicket partnership of 81 with Vengsarkar (31).Finally, he reached his century and won the match with his eighth four.For his unbeaten 101, Sharma faced only 96 balls and also hit a six.India were finally home with six wickets and eleven deliveries to spare,handing England their first defeat of the competition. Interestinglyenough, Chetan in a career of 65 one-day internationals, did not evencross the half-century mark before or after this astonishing knock.
