ON THIS DAY
Follow UsRarely in the history of cricket has it happened that a drawn Test match has continued to hold nostalgic value three decades since its occurrence. The match in discussion is the clash between Pakistan and India at Karachi’s National Stadium, which started on November 15, 1989.
Surprisingly, the match had seen no major records broken or exceptional knocks played over five days. However, it did see two teenagers, Waqar Younis and Sachin Tendulkar, debuting for their respective nations at the young age of 17 and 16, respectively.
Having had a great 1989-90 Ranji Trophy season, where Tendulkar tallied 583 runs with an average of 67.77 to end up as the eighth-highest run-scorer overall, he was finally picked by selector Raj Singh Dungarpur for the Pakistan tour after the young boy was ignored for the West Indies tour earlier in 1989.
On the other hand, Waqar Younis had an unusual route to making his international debut. The lanky bowler had replaced an injured Saleen Jaffar in the Super Willis Cup, following which former Pakistan captain Imran Khan had noticed him on TV. Khan would come down to watch Younis play the same day and take him to the camp.
However, while Younis was a new name for the Indian players, Tendulkar wasn’t. Going back to his debut clash against India in 1989, Younis had said, “About Sachin, the entire India Under-19 team, they were just raving about him, saying how good that little kid is.
“He’s only a schoolboy, scoring triple-centuries at school. Who scored triple-centuries at school? Even scoring a century at school is an amazing thing," Younis had said on the podcast "The Greatest Rivalry."
Batting first, the hosts put up 409, banking on a century from Imran Khan and crucial innings from Shoaib Mohammad (67) and Javed Miandad (78). Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev had led the charge for India, taking five and four wickets, respectively.
In response, India would start in the worst possible way with skipper Kris Srikkanth, Navjot Sidhu, Sanjay Manjrekar and Prabhakar adding a combined 16 runs, thereby rushing in a 16-year-old Tendulkar to the middle. Sachin would score only 15 runs in 24 balls, which had two boundaries, but he would stick alongside Mohammad Azharuddin in the middle for 28 runs. Eventually, Ravi Shastri (45), Kapil Dev (55) and Kiran More (58) would take India’s tally to 262.
Unlike Sachin, Younis had an impressive outing on his debut as he dismissed Manjrekar, Prabhakar, Tendulkar and Kapil Dev to return with figures of 4/80 in 19 overs. “The first Test was at Karachi, and I got him early,” remembered Younis.
“I think he scored 15. He played a couple of really classy on-drives and straight drives in that 15.”
The second innings of the Karachi Test was quite monotonous. Pakistan would declare at 305 in the second innings after Saleem Malik (102 runs) and Shoaib Mohammad (95) would score big for the hosts. India had to chase 453 runs, but they would end the match, standing at 303/5 after Manjrekar (113) and Sidhu (85) steadied the ship for the visitors.
This series had announced the arrivals of two cricketing legends. Both Younis and Tendulkar had topped the charts for most wickets taken and most runs scored, respectively, for any player before turning 21. While Younis ended his career with 373 Test and 416 ODI wickets, Tendulkar would end his career with 15,921 Test runs and 18,426 ODI runs.
Interestingly, that first encounter between the two cricketers in Karachi was the first and last time Younis had dismissed Tendulkar in Tests. In ODIs, however, Younis would dismiss Tendulkar four times.
“At first glance, he didn't give me the impression that he would be the great Sachin Tendulkar that he is today. What he has done over the years is amazing, on and off the field. At that time, I didn't realize he would be such a big name in cricket. But his hard work paid off," Younis had said about Tendulkar.
