Date-stamped : 23 Nov93 - 08:47 Ind v Pak, Shj ODI1, 19 Oct 91 The Indian team pulled out an inspired win to break a long sto- ry of futility in the desert (this was India's first win over Pakistan at Sharjah in 6 years). Winning the toss, Azhar elected to bat, but the pitch was abso- lutely unhelpful to both batsmen and bowlers, and the openers (Shastri and Sidhu) made extremely heavy weather of the Pakistan attack (Aaqib and Imran), which was tight and troublesome. The running between the wickets was atrocious (Sidhu was particularly bad, and managed to run out Shastri and almost put paid to Manjrekar). Shastri managed 22 in 65 balls, while Sidhu managed 38 in a like number. India had only about 20-odd runs after 10 overs, and about 75 after 25 overs. Manjrekar had to resort to some uncharacteristic aggression to speed things up, and Azhar came in with his usual breath-of-fresh-air style, looking for (and getting) runs (singles, doubles) off almost every ball. Just when he was looking set at 32 (off 37 balls, with 1 four), Waqar produced probably the best ball of the tournament so far, picking the gap between Azhar's bat and pad and bowling him. At this stage, Tendulkar came in for a dazzling innings, while Manjrekar (and later Kapil) played sheet anchor at the other end. Off the last 5 overs of the innings, India scored 56 runs, 37 of them by Tendulkar, who finished with 51 in 40 balls, including some thunderous shots to the fence with a heavier-than-usual bat. Manjrekar was out for 72 off 91 balls with 3 4s and a 5. The Pakistan fielding was dazzling as usual, and it was only when Azhar and Manjrekar were taking a variety of heart-stopping singles that the fielding showed some slightly frayed edges. When Pakistan came in to bat, they established a solid innings after an early wicket (Sajid) was lost in the 5th over. Javed and Rameez stabilised the innings just as they did against the West Indies, and after they departed, the innings fell apart in the same way. From an invincible-looking 124/2, they lost 4 wickets in 4 overs to stumble to 139/6, with Venkatapathy Raju (who had main- tained a tight line and length throughout) striking two vital blows. Miandad was a little unhappy with his lbw, but several re- plays were quite convincing. At this point, the pace attack (! - Prabhakar, Srinath and Kapil) was brought back in, and the tail crumbled trying for impossible shots (by then, the target was virtually out of reach, with Pakistan needing 110 in 15 overs). Prabhakar dealt the coup-de-grace, clean bowling the last two batsmen who tried to go for big heaves. Except for Shastri (who faced the brunt of Javed's attack), the bowlers were surprisingly economical, though (as usual) the Indi- an fielding left much to be desired. Pakistan's running between wickets was superb, and Rameez was extremely unfortunate to fall to an excellent one-handed direct throw by Kapil. However, the turning point of the innings must surely be Salim's dismissal by Shastri in his last over. Contributed by probal (probal@*rutgers.edu)