Watch cricket masters: While we celebrate Kohli's epic 82, let's not forget these old classics

Virat Kohli’s stunning match-winning knock of 82 off 53 balls turned an eminent defeat into the most glorious of victories for India over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup on Sunday.

Kohli is not alone. There have been quite a few outrageous knocks in T20 cricket in the past 10 years as the format gives batters the freedom to produce moments of magic.

While we celebrate Kohli and some other greats in the post-T20 era, let’s not forget a few past masters that have pulled off some astonishing chases long before the game’s shortest and most exciting format was introduced.

When the one-day game, cricket’s original limited-overs format, was in its early stage, these players gave chasing masterclass against all odds.

Here are three of the best one-day knocks under pressure for a chasing team in one-day cricket.

Miandad’s fabled last-ball six

Cricket was never the same again after Javed Miandad’s match-winning last-ball six scripted a famous win for Pakistan over India in Sharjah in 1986, almost 20 years before the birth of T20 cricket.

Chasing 246 – a big total back then – to win an Austral-Asia Cup final against India, Miandad delivered an outstanding performance with the bat. Despite Pakistan losing wickets regularly at the other end, the legendary batsmen fought tooth and nail to take the match into the final over.

It was in that last over from Chetan Sharma that Miandad wrote his name in the history books.

The dramatic final over saw Miandad on strike with Pakistan needing five off the last ball.

Displaying nerves of steel, Miandad looked around the field as the bowler went back to his mark and converted Sharma’s yorker, a delivery of hope, into a full-toss and blasted it into the stands for the most sensational of victories the game had ever seen. The feisty middle-order batsman remained unbeaten on 116 off 114 balls with a strike rate of 101.75, which was far ahead of its time.

Azharuddin's 62-ball century

Mohammad Azharuddin was at the peak of his powers playing an innings that secured the most unlikely of wins for India against New Zealand at Vadodara in 1988.

It was the fourth game of a five-match ODI series and India was in pursuit of a challenging 279 at the Moti Bagh Palace ground in Gujarat.

With only spectators watching from under colourful shamianas as broadcaster Doordarshan lost the transmission, India were in big trouble after losing their fifth wicket at 133.

But Azharuddin launched a stunning counter-attack to score a 62-ball century, the fastest during the time, highlighted by two massive sixes which cleared the open stadium.

The former skipper would describe the innings as his greatest ODI performance among the seven centuries that he scored in 50 overs cricket.

Salim Malik's 36-ball 72

The local fans came in droves expecting India to cash in on the home advantage and defeat Pakistan in an ODI game at the gigantic Eden Gardens in 1987.

But little did they know that Salim Malik, a wristy middle-order batsman, had his own plans.

Chasing 240 in 40 overs, Pakistan needed 78 runs off just 48 balls when Malik walked in at number seven with his team staring at a big defeat.

The mood was expectedly high among the Indian spectators but Malik launched an astonishing assault on the Indian bowlers, scoring 72 off 36 balls, in a masterful display of attacking batting.

The 100,000 vociferous Indian supporters were silenced by Malik’s magnificence as Pakistan completed an astonishing come-from-behind victory.

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