Date-stamped : 12 Apr95 - 10:39 ASIA CUP 95: Pakistan v India Sharjah, 7 April 1995 Jinxed India lose again to Pakistan - Kuldip Lal Pakistan continued their stranglehold over arch-rivals India at this desert venue as Moin Khan's new-look team scored an impres- sive 97-run win in the Asia Cup here Friday. Pakistan, who had won 12 of their 15 previous meetings against India here, added one more with a brilliant allround display, despite the absence of four top stars including skipper Salim Malik and fast bowler Waqar Younis. Electing to take first strike in perfect batting conditions, Pak- istan hammered 266 for nine in their stipulated 50 overs with Inzamam-ul-Haq top-scoring with 88 and allrounder Wasim Akram smashing 50 off 46 balls. The Indians, who saw this outing as their best chance to break the jinx, were felled by an outstanding opening spell by Aquib Javed and folded up for 169 in 42.4 overs. Javed grabbed four wickets, including the vital one of Sachin Tendulkar, in his first five overs while conceding just 12 runs. The slim medium- pacer, who took a hat-trick against India here four years ago, added one more scalp in his second spell to return with five for 19 from nine well-directed overs. India never recovered from the disastrous start, and only bat- tling half-centuries from Navjot Sidhu and Sanjay Manjrekar saved them from a complete rout. Pakistan, the reigning World Cup champions attempting to win their first Asia Cup title, play Bangladesh on Saturday and Sri Lanka on Tuesday in their remaining round-robin league matches. India, who defeated Bangladesh in their first match, must defeat Sri Lanka on Sunday if they are to defend the title in the final next Friday. Javed began the destruction in his first over, the second of the innings, when he had Manoj Prabhakar caught behind by Moin Khan without scoring. Tendulkar, India's main hope, drove Javed for a boundary in his second over before falling two balls later -- caught at the wicket while attempting a wild pull shot. Javed, who changed ends after three overs, struck twice in his fifth over to make India a hopeless 37 for four. Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin flicked a full toss to Asif Mujtaba at short mid-wicket and left-hander Vinod Kambli was bowled round his legs. Contributed by vicky (vigneswa@risky.ecs.umass.edu) ====> more Pakistan Hands India 97-Run Defeat Pakistan scored its biggest cricket victory over India on Friday, beating their arch rivals by 97 runs in their first meet- ing at the fifth Asia Cup. Pakistan ran up 266 for nine and then dismissed the pre- tournament favorites for 169 all out in 42.4 overs. Aaqib Javed, who took five wickets for just 19 runs, recorded the Asia Cup`s best bowling figures, eclipsing Arshad Ayub of In- dia who claimed 5 for 21 in the third Asia Cup in Dhaka, Ban- gladesh. India also had to suffer the humiliation of losing by nearly 100 runs, their worst defeat ever against Pakistan. Pakistan defeated India by 72 runs in the 1991 Wills Cup in Sharjah. Javed, whose exploits here made him a hero when he grabbed seven wickets for just 31 runs against India in 1991, again dom- inated with two devastating three-over spells in which he claimed four wickets. Opener Manoj Prabhakar was caught by Moin Khan without scoring on the fourth ball of the second over, Javed`s first. India then saw Javed return for his second over and dismiss stalwart Sachin Tendulkar for a paltry four, with wicket keeper Moin Khan catching again. Tendulkar slammed a boundary over Javed just before being sent back, leaving the Indians staring defeat in the face. Two half-centuries by one-down batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu (54) and Sanjay Manjrekar (50) only delayed the inevitable. Sidhu`s 82-ball stay produced just seven boundariess, while Manjrekar slammed two sixes over the fence off leg-spinner Nadeem Khan in the 44th over. Pakistan went into the match with some new faces in their ranks and bearing the stigma of alleged bribery scandals, which led to the sacking of skipper Salim Malik and the departures of Rashid Latif and Basit Ali. They also had to suffer the loss of Ejaz Ahmed Jr., who cracked a finger during nets on Thursday morning. But on Friday, they again proved their determination to win at their favorite venue. Inzamam ul-Haq rescued his team from a precarious position with 88 off 100 balls after Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. After Aamer Sohail and Saeed Anwar, the two left-handed openers, produced a partnership of 58 in 66 balls, Sohail depart- ed to a catch by Sachin Tendulkar after scoring 40 in 40 balls, inhluding six fours and one six. Anwar followed after hitting 25, including a six and two fours. By the end of the 33rd over, Pakistan had lost five wickets with 133 on board and were in an unhealthy position. But new man Wasim Akram and Haq put up a sixth-wicket partner- ship of 81 in 12 overs to give Pakistan the edge over the Indi- ans, who were showing signs of distress with their shoddy field- ing. Haq was bowled by Venkatesh Prasad after scoring 88, including seven fours. Akram got out with 50 when Manjrekar`s throw from mid-wicket found the target. Akram scored his half-century in 46 balls, which included four fours and two sixes. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also play in this tournament, which runs in Sharjah on a round-robin basis until April 14. With India and Pakistan having won a match each, the race for the final will heat up Sunday when India takes on the resurgent Sri Lanka, which beat Bangladesh. Pakistan has a comparitively easy task against Bangladesh on Saturday. Source :: AP Worldstream Contributed by Ram.Krishnan (rkrishna@garnet.acns.fsu.edu) ====> more Indian team is a paper tiger : S.M.Gavaskar First a question to the International Cricket Council. Why does the ICC match referee have to toss the coin? Since when has the tradition of one of the captains spinning the coin been tossed out of the window? One knows that the ICC would like to control everything connected with the game but - this is ridiculous. To- morrow they might want the ICC referee to even call `play` for the umpires to start the game. Clive Lloyd`s toss fell Moin Khan`s way and he had no hesitation in opting to bat first despite the fact that the game was start- ing much earlier than usual here. Aamir Sohail, after a couple of deliveries, for sighters, was on the go and he took the initia- tive away from the Indian bowlers. Srinath in particular was got after in such a manner the he looked bereft of ideas and even the normally unflappable Prabhakar looked lost. Saeed Anwar loves the Sharjah wicket but he also spent most of the morning admiring Sohail`s adventurous batting. After Sohail departed to Srinath, the Indians struck back getting Anwar. Ghu- lam Ali pottered around a bit but when he found that he had to go for the big ones he tried but failed. Asif Mujtaba was run out and with five wickets down and just over 100 on the board India seemed to have clawed themselves back into the game after the mauling from Sohail and Anwar. Inzamam was playing himself in quietly and Wasim Akram had a point or two to prove. By the way, when the Cricket Board officials come to Sharjah or wherever, do they come alone or do they bring their wives also? I mean, if they can do that why not a player? All that the contro- versy has done is to strengthen Akram`s resolve to give nobody a chance to question his commitment to the team. The opponents will be the ones to suffer and India suffered as Akram applied himself and did not try any flashy shots but was content to build a partnership with Inzamam. Azhar brought Tendulkar and Chatterjee in tandem and that meant the overs went by quickly but his captaincy left a lot to be desired. Despite Srinath`s discomfiture he brought him on again and he got clobbered. Azhar did not utilise Kumble fully and Tendulkar`s full quota of overs and they were his best bowlers on the day. A score of 266 was simply 30 runs too many and India needed to get off to a blazing start. Instead they fell to Aaqib Javed playing some poor shots. Knowing that there was an inexperienced second and third string attack the Indians should have played a waiting game against Akram and Aaqib and then gone for the attack later. If Bangladesh looked as if they batted without a plan, the Indi- ans were no better. Sidhu and Manjrekar salvaged some pride for the Indians with individual half-centuries but the margin of vic- tory was as conclusive as any. The Pakistanis could have finished the game even earlier but their faster bowlers got carried away and bowled far too short to the Indian tail-enders when some straight deliveries would have finished the job and saved them half hour in the sun. They call it the clash of Titans but on the evidence of not just this game but previous matches here in Sharjah, there is only one Titan and that is Pakistan. The other one is only a midget, a pa- per tiger who will only be Titans at home. Source :: IndiaWorld online Contributed by Vijay (vjpant@math.lsa.umich.edu)