When Miandad sealed the deal on the last ball

Before this match, Pakistan had won just twice in nine previous ODIs against their arch-rivals, and were behind in the head-to-head record.

After this, and until the 2003 World Cup encounter at Centurion, Pakistan would win 45 out of 69 ODIs.

In my life, the only comparable moment when a player’s brilliance ended up flipping a rivalry on its head was when a teenaged Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick at the Bernabeu to kick off an era of Barcelona’s domination over Real Madrid.

But Javed Miandad’s audacious last-ball six at Sharjah was an even bigger deal, given that it involved much bigger fan bases; was far more improbable than a late equaliser could be; and more than revamping a rivalry, it pretty much launched the era of Asian-based limited overs cricket that defined the sport in the next century.

The match itself is well worth a revisit, but in the larger picture it’s details are irrelevant. How much more evocative can it get than the last ball of a final between two arch-rivals being sealed with a six?