1988 Giant paceman Curtly Ambrose bowled the West Indians to a narrow 11-run victory over Pakistan to win the Sharjah Champions Trophy cricket tournament for the third successive time. Put to bat, the West Indies scored a respectable 235 for six wickets and then bowled out Pakistan for 224 in 49.4 overs under the gloom of the falling darkness. Ambrose put the skids under the Pakistani batsmen from the outset by removing both openers Mudassar Nazar and Rameez Raja with deadly yorkers while the score was only 20. Later he came back for his final fling and virtually ended Pakistan’s hopes by clean bowling Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram for one. Ambrose finished the match with the outstanding figures of four wickets for 29 runs in ten overs.
Other important events
1938 American patent attorney and amateur inventor Chester Carlson invents the photocopier.
1947 India and Pakistan go to war over Kashmir.
1953 Laos gains its independence from France.
1954 West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
1975 Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 soft-lands on Venus.
1988 Hurricane Joan hits Nicaragua and kills 148 people.
1992 Rafik Al Hariri is appointed Lebanese prime minister.
1993 Haiti’s last major gas retailer orders its pumps shut after UN-imposed oil embargo.
2005 A passenger jet crashes shortly after take-off from Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 117 on board.
2008 India launches Chandrayaan-1, the first unmanned mission to the moon.
2011 Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz dies of cancer in New York.
2013 Phase One of the 13 megawatt solar project at Seih Al Dahal, Dubai’s first solar power plant, is inaugurated.
2014 Sharjah International Airport opens a new Dh500 million second runway.
2017 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wins re-election with a super-majority.
