A few years before Live Aid -- and the knighthood -- came along, Bob Geldof and his Boomtown Rats had chart success with Tell Me Why I Don't Like Mondays. You could forgive the Indian cricket team if they decided to do a cover version of that 1981 classic. Only, they'd call it Tell us why we don't like Fridays. Over the last two seasons, India have taken over South Africa's mantle as champion chokers. Eight successive one-day finals have been lost -- the most important being the ICC Knockout at Nairobi last October. It's the kind of streak no-one wants to take credit for. Yet, if you go back to the early days of pyjama cricket, you'll find that India were specialists at winning the big games. The biggest of course was the World Cup final in 1983. They then walloped Pakistan in the final of the World Championship of Cricket in Australia (1985). Sandwiched between the two was a memorable final at Sharjah, where they bowled out Pakistan for 87, having made just 125 themselves (with Imran Khan claiming 6 for 14). You'd have to say that their final destiny was changed by one cruel stroke. Even now, 15 years on, I know Indian cricket fans who wake up in a cold sweat just thinking about it. Another Friday final at Sharjah, and Pakistan need four to win off the final delivery. Chetan Sharma throws in a full-toss and Javed Miandad whacks him for six. Indian one-day cricket took years to recover from that one mighty heave. Tournaments in Sharjah thereafter were one-way traffic. Pakistan usually only had to turn up, the Indians would capitulate and do the rest for them. The nadir was often reached when they played in Friday-afternoon finals. The predominantly Pakistani support -- at the stadium straight after Friday prayer at the mosque -- would raise the decibel level and the roof. India, on those occasions, played as if they knew they didn't have a prayer themselves. People have often looked at India and Pakistan's head-to-head record and scoffed at any suggestion of a legitimate rivalry. But take away Pakistan's victories in Sharjah, most coming on Fridays, and you'll find that India have been quite competitive. Indian cricket's most legendary one-day victory of the 1990s came against Pakistan, a frenetic dash to the finish in Dhaka (1997) after they had been set an improbable 315 to win. Tomorrow, Sourav Ganguly and his team will take solace from the fact that South Africa too have a habit of stuffing their heads inside carrier bags. You could write a small book on classic South African chokes, and India have benefited a few times from them. The Hero Cup semi-final in 1993, the Titan Cup final in 1996 and the semi-final at the ICC Knockout last year all come to mind. It should be an interesting final at Kingsmead: two teams with a penchant for throwing in the towel when the going gets tough. Who will do a Roberto Duran tomorrow and cry, "No mas" (no more)? We await with bated breath. Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor, Wisden Online India.

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