For Surinder Khanna Asia Cup 1984 was the most rewarding moment of his short international career. On a comeback after the 1979 World Cup, he ended up being twice named Man of the match and eventually Man of the tournament and Best Batsman. Ironically, Khanna played just one more series after this, a hamstring injury killing off his career. ‘‘I was injured at the wrong time, else I would have been remembered for more than just the Asia Cup,’’ says Khanna.NEW DAWN IN THE DESERTSharjah was hosting an ODI for the first time but apprehensions about wickets and facilities took no more than just two days to be blown away when we saw the the playing wicket: a greentop, surrounded by a tabletop outfieldBEST OF THE RESTAll the top Asian players except Imran (stress fracture) and Kapil (knee injury) were present. The green top gladdened Pakistan’s Sarfaraz Nawaz and Azeem Hafeez and Sri Lanka’s Ravi Ratnayake. But it was India’s young bowlers who dominated right through supported by Ravi, Madan and Kirti Azad as Sri Lanka were out for just 96. Sunnybhai, I remember, ran out Ranatunga with a direct throw from short mid-wicket.KEEPING OPTIONS OPENI was coming off a strong domestic season so was sure of playing as an opener, since we had Kiri. But on the morning of the match the team management insisted I do both jobs. Ghulam Parkar and I got to the target without any loss. Ghulam was an outstanding fielder, a steady front-footer who played the cut and pull play very well, but somewhere down the line we lost him as a playerON TARGET AGAINMy 51 against Sri Lanka gave me the confidence to play Pakistan. Again Parkar and I started well and contributions from Gavaskar and Sandeep gave us a decent score. The teams played each other only once and the side with the best run quotient or run rate would win the title. So we had to limit the Pakistanis below 170 to claim the Asia Cup. Fortunately for us again our young bowlers were on target as the Pakistanis folded up for just 130 odd.KINGS OF ASIAIn the end we laid hands on the Asia Cup by right. It was made possible by a combination of good fielding, excellent seam bowling and great captaincy. The parties did not stop for a long time as the CBFS looked after us very well. And was I glad for having done justice to the recallBRIEF SCORES: Sri Lanka 96 in 41 overs lost to India 97-0 in 21.4 oversIndia 188-4 in 46 overs bt Pakistan 134 in 39.4 overs — As told to Chandresh Narayanan
