The host of the Asia Cup in 1984 was United Arab Emirates. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka participated in this inaugural tournament. The round robin format was used in this championship as per which each country played one match against each other country. As India won both its matches, it won the Asia Cup 1984. Sri Lanka won one match and lost one and was ranked the second. Pakistan lost both matches and was at the bottom of the table.
On 13th April 1984, India and Pakistan clashed in an encounter at the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium. India was led by Sunil Gavaskar while the captain of the Pakistan team was Zaheer Abbas. India won the toss and opted to bat. This match was reduced to 46 overs a side.
Wicketkeeper sparkles
The Indian opening batsman, Ghulam Parkar was run out on a personal score of 22 off 55 balls. He hit 2 fours. The No. 3 batsman, Dilip Vengsarkar did not last for a long time. When he had scored 14 runs from 44 deliveries, he was clean bowled by Shahid Mahboob. The scoreboard read 2 for 88. The main scorer for the Indian side was their wicketkeeper, Surinder Khanna. He clobbered 2 sixers and 3 boundaries and contributed 56 runs in 72 balls. He was caught by Anil Dalpat off the bowling of Mudassar Nazar, when the team had reached 110. Thereafter, Sandeep Patil took charge of the batting and in 50 balls accrued 43 runs. He smashed 1 sixer and 5 fours. Sunil Gavaskar did not disappoint and remained unbeaten on 36 in 55 balls. At the end of 46 overs, India reached a total of 188 for the loss of 4 wickets.
Excessive run outs
The Pakistan squad witnessed 4 run outs during their innings and this exposed the lack of communication between their batsmen. The first batsman to be run out was Saadat Ali, the No. 2 batsman. He made 13 runs in 21 deliveries. Saleem Malik, the No. 5 batsman, had scored 15 runs in 17 balls, but had to return to the pavilion as he was run out. Shahid Mahboob and Abdul Qadir, both were run out on a duck after they had faced 1 ball. The remaining batsmen tried hard to chase the Indian score, but were unsuccessful in overcoming the medium pace of Roger Binny and spin of Ravi Shastri, who each picked up 3 wickets. The top scorer for Pakistan was Mohsin Khan who made 35 in 65 balls. He was caught by Ghulam Parkar off the bowling of Ravi Shastri. The other wickets which Shastri took were those of Mudassar Nazar (18) and Anil Dalpat (1). Binny took the wickets of Zaheer Abbas (27), Qasim Umar (16) and Sarfraz Nawaz (4). Pakistan was bowled out for 134 in 39.4 overs.
India won the match against Pakistan by 54 runs. Surinder Khanna was given the Man of the Match accolade.