Sharjah 1986: How Javed Miandad’s Last-Ball Six Won the Austral-Asia Cup Final

On 18 April 1986, at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Pakistan beat India by one wicket in the final of the Austral-Asia Cup, a 50-over tournament that also featured Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The match ended on the last possible ball, with Javed Miandad needing four and hitting Chetan Sharma for six.

The six is the part everyone remembers. The scorecard tells a longer story: India were in control for almost the whole day, and Pakistan’s win came out of a chase that kept losing wickets until the very last over.

India’s innings: a big start, a stumbling finish

Pakistan's captain Imran Khan won the toss and chose to field. Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth then put on 117 for the first wicket. Srikkanth made 75 from 80 balls with eight fours and two sixes before he was caught by Wasim Akram off Abdul Qadir.

Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar took India to 216/1. Vengsarkar made 50 from 64 balls and Gavaskar 92 from 134. At that point a total well beyond 250 looked within reach. It did not come. India lost six wickets for 29 runs and finished on 245/7 from their 50 overs. Wasim Akram took 3/42 and Imran 2/40, and Kirti Azad, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri all fell cheaply in the closing overs.

Gavaskar’s 92 was part of a tournament in which he was named player of the series. The final, though, would belong to someone else.

Pakistan’s chase: Miandad against the clock

Pakistan needed 246. They lost Mudassar Nazar, leg before to Sharma, with nine on the board, and Rameez Raja, bowled by Maninder Singh, at 39/2. Miandad, batting at four, came in at that score. Mohsin Khan made 36 before Madan Lal bowled him at 61/3, and Saleem Malik was run out at 110/4.

The partnership that kept Pakistan alive was a stand of 71 between Miandad and Qadir, who made 34 from 39 balls before he was caught by a substitute fielder off Kapil Dev at 181/5. After that the wickets came quickly again: Imran was bowled by Madan Lal at 209/6 and Manzoor Elahi was caught off Sharma at 215/7.

With three overs left Pakistan needed 31. With two left they needed 18. When Sharma came on to bowl the 50th over, Pakistan were 235/7 and needed 11 from six balls, with Miandad still at the crease.

The last over, ball by ball

• Ball one. Miandad hit the ball into the deep and Kapil Dev returned it quickly. Wasim Akram was run out going for a second run. Pakistan were 236/8.
• Ball two. Miandad found the boundary.
• Ball three. Roger Binny stopped what could have been another boundary, and Miandad took a single, which made the score 241/8.
• Ball four. Sharma bowled the wicketkeeper Zulqarnain for nought. Pakistan were 241/9 and needed five from two balls.
• Ball five. Tauseef Ahmed, the last man, scrambled a single to get Miandad back on strike. Mohammad Azharuddin had a chance to run him out and missed.
• Ball six. Four were needed. Sharma aimed for a yorker, but the ball arrived as a full toss and Miandad hit it for six.

Pakistan finished on 248/9. Miandad was unbeaten on 116 from 114 balls, with three fours and three sixes, and was named player of the match. Sharma ended with 3/51 from nine overs. The West Indian umpires David Archer and Antonio Gaynor stood in the match.

Why one ball outlived the match

The people involved have described the match in strikingly similar terms. Rameez Raja later said that “from five past nine till five minutes before the end, India were winning”. Ravi Shastri called it “certainly one of the best games” he had played in. Kapil Dev, India’s captain that day, said the defeat “crushed the whole side’s confidence for the next four years”. Miandad himself has said the six “changed the game in a way”.

What follows is interpretation rather than record. Three things seem to explain why this ball, rather than the many other close finishes of the era, became a fixed point in India-Pakistan cricket.

First, the shape of the chase. Pakistan were never cruising: they lost a wicket at 236 and another at 241 in the final over itself, so the result swung on almost every delivery. A chase that is comfortable until the end rarely produces this kind of memory; one that is lost and found several times in six balls does.

Second, the margin for error on India’s side was tiny and visible. Binny’s stop, Azharuddin’s missed run-out and the full toss were each small events, and any one of them going the other way might have changed the result. That makes the over easy to replay and argue about.

Third, the bowler’s situation. Sharma later said he was “the junior-most” in the side and had not expected Kapil Dev to give him the last over. He took three wickets in the innings, including Zulqarnain in that final over, yet the match is remembered almost only for the ball that went for six. He has also said that the first question people ask him is still about that delivery.

The match in numbers

• India 245/7 (50 overs): Gavaskar 92 (134 balls), Srikkanth 75 (80), Vengsarkar 50 (64); Wasim Akram 3/42, Imran Khan 2/40.
• Pakistan 248/9 (50 overs): Miandad 116 not out (114), Mohsin Khan 36, Abdul Qadir 34; Chetan Sharma 3/51, Madan Lal 2/53.
• Result: Pakistan won by one wicket off the final ball.
• Player of the match: Javed Miandad. Player of the series: Sunil Gavaskar.