Seventeen needed

India needed 271 to beat Pakistan at Chennai on 31 January 1999. At 254 for six, with 17 needed, Sachin Tendulkar was caught by Wasim Akram off Saqlain Mushtaq for 136. India were all out for 258. The margin was 12 runs, the last three wickets had added four, and the player of the match was on the losing side.

How 271 was set

Pakistan batted first and made 238, Moin Khan 60, Anil Kumble six for 70. India replied with 254, Sourav Ganguly 54 and Rahul Dravid 53. Tendulkar was caught off Saqlain for 0 from three balls. Then Shahid Afridi made 141 from 191 balls, with 21 fours and three sixes.

Pakistan were 275 for five when Saleem Malik was caught, and 286 all out eleven runs later. Venkatesh Prasad took six for 33 in 10.2 overs, five of them maidens, on the third afternoon. India needed 271 and were 40 for two at the close, Tendulkar 20.

Full scorecard: India v Pakistan, 1st Test, Chennai, 28–31 January 1999 →

Eighty-two for five

Sadagoppan Ramesh and VVS Laxman had gone for 5 and 0. On the fourth morning Dravid was bowled by Akram for 10 at 50, Mohammad Azharuddin leg before to Saqlain for 7 at 73, Ganguly caught behind off Saqlain for 2 at 82. Five wickets down, 189 still needed, and Nayan Mongia in.

Two hundred and eighteen

Tendulkar and Mongia put on 136. Mongia made 52 from 135 balls in 192 minutes and was caught by Waqar Younis off Akram at 218, 53 needed with four wickets left. Sunil Joshi came in and the two of them took it to 254, which is 36 runs closer, and 17 from the end.

The over

Saqlain to Tendulkar, in the 92nd over, 17 needed. Tendulkar was caught by Akram. The card gives it as c Wasim Akram b Saqlain Mushtaq 136, from 273 balls and 405 minutes, with 18 fours. Seven down, and the next line on the fall-of-wickets list reads 8-256, Kumble, leg before to Akram, the following over. Then 9-256, Joshi, caught and bowled Saqlain. Then 10-258, Javagal Srinath, bowled Saqlain. Prasad 0 not out.

Four runs for the last three wickets, in 3.3 overs. Saqlain finished with 32.2 overs, five for 93. Akram three for 80, with 16 no-balls. The 36 extras in India’s innings were the third-highest score in it.

What the card adds

Tendulkar was player of the match for 1 for 10, 2 for 35 and 136. What the card does not say is that he batted with a back in spasm, which is on the record elsewhere. It does say that one over in India’s innings was of five balls, the 87th, Akram’s eighteenth, with V. K. Ramaswamy the umpire who miscounted it. Ramesh was on debut. Pakistan led the two-match series one-nil.

The umpires and the rest

Steve Dunne and Ramaswamy stood, Arani Jayaprakash was the television umpire and Cammie Smith the referee. The Test is number 1442. Kumble, who had taken six for 70 in the first innings, bowled 22 overs in the second for 93 and one wicket, and Afridi took three for 31 and then bowled 16 overs for 23 without one. The card does not carry an attendance, and does not need to.

What the card holds

A pair of Saqlain wickets for Tendulkar in the match, 0 and 136. A six-for for Kumble and a six-for for Prasad, both on the losing side. A 141 from a number two who also bowled 23.1 overs. A fall of wickets that goes 218, 254, 256, 256, 258 against a target of 271. And a five-ball over, recorded, in a match decided by 12 runs.

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No. 7 in The Over That Turned It, a series of 9.

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