Green-shirts have remained unbeatable against India in limited overs cricket at this venue
LAHORE: Should the Shahid Afridi-led green shirts trample all over the Mahendra Singh Dhoni Eleven on Saturday evening (today) at Kolkata’s historic 152-year-old Eden Gardens Stadium amid forecasts of unfriendly weather, it will be their fifth consecutive victory in limited overs cricket over India at this ground in 29 years since February 18, 1987, when Saleem Malik had led his team to a two-wicket victory with a fabulous 36-ball 72-run innings in front of a roaring crowd of 97,627 spectators.
Refreshing the happy memories, Malik had gone on to smash four boundaries in one over from Kapil Dev. Opener Ramiz Raja and veteran Younis Ahmed had finished with knocks of 58 each at the top, making India lose despite a 123 run innings by their swash-buckling opener K. Srikkanth.
Eden Gardens Kolkata, the largest Indian cricket stadium and the second largest in the world after the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, has certainly been a happy hunting ground for the Pakistani cricketers who have won all their previous ODIs at this ground against India, West Indies and Bangladesh, but had lost one against Sri Lanka on May 27, 1997 by 85 runs.
Sri Lanka had compiled a total of 309 as Jayasuriya (55), Aravinda De Silva (57) and Ranatunga (59) had starred in the innings.
In reply, Pakistan could score 224 only, courtesy Ramiz Raja (76) and Ijaz Ahmed (55).
Designed in 1841, the 50-acre Eden Gardens is among the oldest parks in the city and was named after the Eden sisters of Lord Auckland, then the British Governor-General of India.
Having once seen the Danes, the French, the Dutch and the Portuguese set up their colonial camps here, Kolkata (previously called Calcutta), had then seen Pakistan trouncing India in the Nehru Cup One-Day tournament with a huge 77 runs margin on October 28, 1989.
Ramiz Raja (77), skipper Imran Khan (47) and Aamir Malik (51) were the top scorers for Pakistan, who had gone on to compile a challenging total of 279 for seven.
In reply, the Indians were bundled out for 202. A crowd of 84,825 people had witnessed this encounter.
On November 13, 2004, Pakistan had chased down the Indian total of 292 runs with just four wickets down.
Salman Butt had scored 108 not out, Inzamamul Haq (75) and Shoaib Malik (61) had featured prominently in the tense run chase watched by 85,821 people on the ground.
Yuvraj Singh (78), Virendar Sehwag (53), Ganguly (48) and VVS Laxman (43) were the key ruin getters for India.
On January 3, 2013, Pakistan had beaten India by 85 runs in front of 66,000 spectators.
Nasir Jamshed had struck a masterly century (106 off 124 balls) before getting out to Indian spinner Ravinder Jadeja. This was his second century of the series and the third consecutive three-figure knock against India.
On November 1, 1989, at the Nehru Cup Final at the Eden Gardens, Wasim Akram had hit a lofted six off West Indian Captain Vivian Richards to help Pakistan clinch the honours with a four-wicket win.
In all the Test matches played between Pakistan and India at the Eden Gardens since December 1952, the two countries have won a match each, while the remaining fixtures have ended in tame draws.
Pakistan had won the February 16-20, 1999 match by 46 runs and India had levelled the score by picking a 195-run win in March 2005.
It was during the February 1999 Test match that Pakistan’s tear-away pacer Shoaib Akhter had bowled Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar off two consecutive deliveries.
This was the first-ever occasion when Tendulkar was sent back to the back to the pavilion off the very first ball he had faced.
It was during the second innings of this particular Test match when an ugly incident on the field at triggered rioting at Kolkata.
Tendulkar had clipped a delivery from Wasim Akram to complete two runs, which helped him record 5,000 runs in Test cricket. While the premier Indian batsman was attempting the third run, he had collided with Shoaib Akhtar, who was looking to collect the throw from substitute fielder Nadeem Khan.
The fielder's direct throw had had hit the stumps and Tendulkar was given out by the third umpire, KT Francis, who had thought the ace Indian batsman was short of his crease.
It was no one's fault and just Tendulkar's hard luck.
Chasing 279 runs to win, India were well-placed at 143/2 till this point.
Water bottles and other objects were then pelted at Shoaib Akhtar by the angry crowd. Consequently, the match had to be stopped for 46 minutes.
The game that India ultimately lost had to be completed by ejecting all the spectators from the ground.
The drawn Pak-India Test matches were played at this venue on December 12–15 1952, December 30, 1960 -January 4, 1961, January 29, 1980 to February 3, 1980 and February 11–16, 1987 and Nov 30-December 4, 2007.
And very recently on March 16, 2016, Pakistan had cut Bangladesh to size by a 55-run margin in a T20 World Cup game.
Peeking into the history of Eden Gardens, one comes to know that it had hosted its first-ever first-class match in 1917-18, some 53 years after it was established in 1864.
This ground had also seen 16 football fans dying on August 16, 1980 in a stampede after a derby league game between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.
While the first-ever Test at the Eden Gardens was played between India and England in January 1934, the inaugural ODI was played here between Pakistan and India on February 18, 1987.
The first T20 on this ground was played between India and England in October 2011.
On its 150th anniversary, on November 13, 2014, the Eden Gardens witnessed the highest-ever score by batsman in One day internationals, a 264 off 173 balls scored by Indian opener Rohit Sharma during the 4th One day international of Sri Lanka versus India at the venue.
Cricket records show that Australia had defeated England by seven runs at the memorable World Cup final of 1987. England captain Mike Gatting's impetuous reverse-sweep off Allan Border had cost England the game when he was looking good on 41 and his team was well poised for a comfortable run chase.
Australia had made 253 for 5.
While Kapil Dev had scored an ODI hat-trick against the Sri Lankans in 1991 at this ground, Harbhajan Singh had achieved the same feat in the India versus Australia Test match in 2000/01.
VVS Laxman's 281-run knock against Australia in this particular match remains the highest individual score at this ground.
The most runs in Test matches played here were scored by VVS Laxman (1,217), followed by Rahul Dravid (962) and Muhammad Azharuddin (860).
Harbhajan Singh is the highest wicket-taker at Eden Gardens with 46, followed by Anil Kumble (40) and Bishan Singh Bedi (29).
The most runs in ODIs played here were scored by Sachin Tendulkar (496), followed by Muhammad Azharuddin (332) and Aravinda DeSilva (306).
Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble are the joint highest ODI wicket-takers at Eden Gardens, with 14 apiece.
VVS Laxman and Azharuddin have scored five centuries each at this venue.
By the way, Pakistan and India have never played a T20I at the Eden Gardens.
India and Pakistan have played only seven T20I against each other before today’s match.
Indians have convincingly dominated Pakistan in those seven matches with only one defeat to their name.
Pakistan has never beaten India at a world event, having lost all four times against their arch rivals in the sport.
Pakistan had lost twice to India in 2007 and one time apiece in 2012 and 2014.
The two teams had not faced each other during the 2009 and 2010 T20 World Cups.