How Winning by 59 run instead of 60 Destroyed Pakistan's Hope of becoming Back 2 Back Asian Champion

The mind blowing story of when India celebrated losing to Pakistan in the virtual semifinals of the 2004 Asia cup. A unique historic situation created due to an absurd bonus point system that saw Pakistan knocked out of the finals 0:00 Introduction 0:36 India Tour of Pakistan 2004 prelude 1:00 Absurd Promotions and advertisements 2:00 Both the team’s Terrible Form 2:38 The New Pacer Duo – Mohammad Sami & Shoaib Akhtar 3:11 The Sami Curse – ODI series 4:20 Curse Continues – Test Series 4:31 Sehwag Dropped – Scores a triple Century 5:02 Sami The batsman 5:37 Pakistan Swept at home 6:26 Asia Cup Bonus Point Format 7:27 Asia Cup – Super 4s – India Pakistan Match Shoaib Malik onslaught 8:17 India Collapse 8:38 Shift In Strategy 9:45 Irfan Pathan and Sachin Tendulkar’s heroic’s 10:05 Pakistan responds 10:32 Sachin Falls – Pakistan’s Morale Explodes 11:46 Final Over – 6 Runs in 6 balls 12:47 Last ball 13:21 Aftermath The tale begins with India's historic tour to Pakistan in March 2004, which was seen as a chance to use cricket to bridge the political tensions between the two countries. India was going to tour Pakistan after 15 years, calling it a friendship series however neither the ads nor the promotion made it look like one Calling it what it was A war Indian team who seemed eager to defeat pakistan in pakistan while the pakistani team wanted to continue their record on being undefeated in tests at home against india though their form coming into this tournament for both the teams was bad india losing 3 finals in a row ( World Cup 2003, VB series, VA series) while being defeated by Australia at home While pakistan had just lost a series at home to south Africa and seem to be floundering after losing the lethal bowling combo of Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram. With hope now being placed on the shoulders of Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akhtar However the moment the series started A strange pattern was seen. Everytime Sami performed well, Pakistan lost and every time he did badly, Pakistan seemed to be winning. Not only in ODIs but also in tests. From Sehwag brilliant Triple Century to Umar Gull’s Bulldozing action to even Rahul Dravid’s Magnificent 257 This pattern held true through it all Finally resulting in India Not just defeating Pakistan and winning a historic series But sweeping them in it Winning both test and ODI series (ODI series 3-2 Test series 2-1) Following this, Pakistan faced a period of intense criticism and humiliation due to their poor performance. And the most criticism was faced by Mohammad Sami, who had never faced this level of scrutiny and even blamed himself for not performing well. So, as the 2004 Asia Cup taking place in Sri Lanka, approached, Pakistan, the defending champions, were looking at it as the place to redeem themselves To take their rightful revenge and settle all the scores However this tournament featured a unique format with bonus points influencing the outcome. Making it so that teams in spite of losing could get a bonus point by crossing a limit depending on the first inning total And when the India Pakistan high-stakes match, Pakistan scored a formidable 300 runs, largely thanks to an aggressive innings by Shoaib Malik. A difficult task that was made especially daunting when india lost 5 wickets for just 151 runs So, Sourav Ganguly along with Coach John Wright decided on a strategy. to reach the bonus point target and get that one point instead of all 6 And then defeating sri lanka to take Pakistan out of the finals This strategy led to a sudden shift of India into a slow and cautious approach, with Pakistan too responding to it by focusing on getting wickets rather then stifling runs And the need to not fall too much behind the run rate then saw Sachin Tendulkar's wicket fall under pressure. Still Irfan Pathan did try to right the ship but even h is brave stand came to an end leaving just Anil Kumble and Lakshmipathy Balaji to take 6 runs in the last over with Mohammad Sami tasked with balling the final over First ball a dot, second a dot again, third went for a four, 2 runs for three balls, forth ball a dot again And then A perfect ball, batsman run for a run, ball in wicketkeeper Moin Khan Hand and he misses it. And now it was 1 run in one ball and the same repeated scene played in front of their eyes. Two perfect balls and two leg byes. India managed to reach the target by losing by 59 runs instead of 60, securing the crucial bonus point. This single point made all the difference, as Sri Lanka, the other top team in the tournament, lost to India without conceding a bonus point. Consequently, despite having a higher net run rate, Pakistan was eliminated from the final, while India advanced. Seemingly lack and fate had together made it so That Pakistan was to end their Asia cup revenge tour In an unmitigated Disaster #cricket #india #pakistan