Sunset at Sunny146;s farewell

Day 1: Manni8217;s day outPakistan 116 Salim Malik 33; Maninder Singh 7-27 vs India 68-28226; On a minefield Imran Khan chose to bat fir...

Day 1: Manni8217;s day out
Pakistan 116 Salim Malik 33; Maninder Singh 7-27 vs India 68-2
8226; On a minefield Imran Khan chose to bat first and are spun out by Maninder Singh. Pakistan lose 8 wickets for just 56 runs, India end the day on a high.

Day 2: Qasim8217;s counter
Pakistan 116 038; 155-5 vs India 145 Dilip Vengsarkar 50; Iqbal Qasim 5-48, Tauseef Ahmed 5-54
8226; Left-arm spinner Iqbal Qasim specially drafted at 11th hour in place of Abdul Qadir repays his captain8217;s faith. Combines with offie Tauseef Ahmed to tie India in knots. But Dilip Vengsarkar shows some resistance, and Pakistan concede a first-innings lead of 29 runs.

Day 3: India relax as tail wags
Pakistan 116 038; 249 Rameez Raja 47, Imran Khan 39, Salim Malik 33; Maninder Singh 3-99, Ravi Shastri 4-69 vs India 145 038; 99-4 Gavaskar batting 51
8226; India loosen grip on the match as Pakistan tail wags. Imran uses the long handle to good effect as Pakistan begin to take control. Pakistan8217;s last five wickets add 107 runs as India8217;s star Maninder Singh and his partner Shastri disappoint. Pakistan set India a target for 221 for a series win.

Day 4: Master class
Pakistan 116 038; 249 vs India 145 038; 204 Sunil Gavaskar 96; Iqbal Qasim 4-73, Tauseef Ahmed 4-85
8226; India starts the day with hope. The master is at work with Azhar for company. India8217;s chances seem bright. But soon the collapse begins, India keep losing wickets as Gavaskar gives a demonstration of batsmanship against spin. With 41 to get, Gavaskar departs from Test match cricket leaving India high and dry

Result: Pakistan win by 16 runs to record a 1-0 series victory.
Man of the Match: Sunil Gavaskar
Man of the Serires: Imran Khan

Bangalore, 1987: Maninder Singh finished with a match haul of 10 wickets but it wasn8217;t enough. Pakistan won the Test and Gavaskar was denied a perfect farewell

	nbsp;	As is the case with fans, the players too consider a India vs Pakistan match very special. I have been lucky to be part of these high intensity games. One such occasion was the final Test at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore during the 1987 series. That happened to be Sunil Gavaskar8217;s final Test match. Before the start of the match, all the team members had vowed to put up a good show for Sunnybhai8217;s sake. There was action and melodrama on all the five days of the match. I had a good first day on the field, taking seven wickets and giving away less than 30 runs. Pakistan were shot out for 160-odd runs in the first innings. We batted better to take a substantial lead, though I thought we should have scored more than the 250 runs we managed. I did not bowl to my satisfaction in Pakistan8217;s second innings although I ended up with three wickets for a match haul of 10 wickets. I bowled too flat in an effort to restrict the run flow instead of giving the ball more air. May be, if I were to bowl under similar circumstances today, I would have done better. May be, I wasn8217;t mature enough then. If I had bowled as well as I did in the first essay, we would not have been chasing a target of 220-odd as it turned out to be. But the way Sunnybhai played in the second innings, we were all very confident of a win. But from 120-4 we suddenly collapsed and lost by 16 runs. As wickets started to fall the mood in the dressing room changed. Suddenly everybody was tense. And when Gavaskar was given out a wrong umpiring decision, there was pin-drop silence in the dressing room. We were all so much disappointed and crestfallen that for a few minutes we didn8217;t know what had happened. It was a match we should have won but lost narrowly. Probably, that8217;s one of the reasons why cricket is known as a game of glorious uncertainties. Nothing is certain till the last ball is bowled or the last run taken. That Bangalore Test is still memorable but for all the wrong reasons. As told to S Santhanam	nbsp;