The Wills World Cup 1996 quarter-final was the first time arch-rivals India and Pakistan met in a knockout game of the illustrious tournament. The match was played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore and the atmosphere was electric.
India batted first and with 93 from Navjot Sidhu and last overs fireworks from Ajay Jadeja, who smashed Waqar Younis brutally in his last two overs, India put on a daunting 287/8 in 50 overs. The target was a stiff one and Pakistan’s openers Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail went after the Indian bowlers and the score was 84/1 when Anwar got out for 48 in 32 balls.
Waqar Younis recalls Aamir Sohail’s epic duel with Venkatesh Prasad during 1996 World Cup clash
Aamir Sohail kept going despite the wicket and things came to a head when he hit Venkatesh Prasad towards point and then everything broke loose as the two had a war of words with Sohail pointing his bat towards the direction where he wanted to hit Prasad again.
Recalling the incident 24 years after, Venkatesh Prasad said on R Ashwin’s YouTube show, DRS with Ash, "If I have to sort of talk about that particular incident, the point is it was a World Cup quarter-final game. If you lose, you are out of the tournament. Also, it was India-Pakistan, you know how the feeling is generally. With the expectations and hype given by the media, then it was very important for us to win to qualify for the semi-final.”
"It was actually sort of a slap (via the off-side), he came down the track and hit the ball towards the point and extra-cover region. I didn't expect that coming. It was a high-pressure game. 35,000 people in the stadium,” he said.
"Before the incident happened, I was at the boundary line. They were smashing us. It looked like the match would get over in 45 overs. I was watching the crowd, standing at fine leg. I could see everybody was on the edge of their seats. They couldn't believe what was happening. That's how the situation was,” Prasad recalled.
Aamir Sohail was captaining Pakistan in this do or die match as Wasim Akram pulled out of the encounter with a hamstring injury on the day of the match. This match also proved to be the final encounter in the illustrious career of legendary Javed Miandad.
"He came down the track and gave himself a bit of room and hit me for a boundary, he showed his bat and showed his fingers towards the place where he hit the ball. He said, he doesn't accept that but he told me and I could hear him. We are quite close, I had completed my follow-through, he said 'I am going to hit you there next ball'. I just heard him say that I just used a couple of words and went back. There was a lot going through,” Prasad said about their verbal duel.
Prasad knew that he had to do something about Sohail and mentions,” I, for some reason, though I was not as quick as Srinath, I would never want a batsman to dominate me. It's been my character. The moment someone dominates me, irrespective of who it is, I would like to give it back.”
"I had to make a decision. Then I said 'this is what I have practiced all my life. Bowl in the corridor, don't give width to the batsman and bowl stump to stump'. And I just backed myself, kept my cool of course, didn't really go back to what happened in the previous ball or what's going to happen the next ball,” Prasad recalls.
Here is the video of the Prasad-Sohail encounter:
