It was the 1744th ODI in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta06-Aug-2001It was the 1744th ODI in cricket history.It was India’s 476th and Sri Lanka’s 362nd match.It was the 70th match between these two sides. The record now reads :Sri Lanka 29, India 36 and abandoned five.These two teams were meeting for the eighth time in a final of atournament since Asia Cup in 1988-89. India has won on five occasionswhile Sri Lanka has won on three.Sanath Jayasuriya became second Sri Lankan and 14th batsman to be leftstranded on 99. The only other Sri Lankan to suffer this fate isRomesh Kaluwitharana. This was also the fourth such instance againstIndia. Of the 14 batsmen who have missed their hundred by just onerun, five remained unbeaten as either the innings was completed or thetarget was achieved.Jayasuriya has now aggregated 411 runs in the seven final matchesagainst India – maximum by any batsman against India. He surpassedPakistan’s Saeed Anwar’s tally of 319 runs from 6 finals.The third wicket partnership of 104 runs between Jayasuriya and MahelaJayawerdene was the ninth century partnership against India withJayasuriya as one of the partners. Jayasuriya has now equalled WestIndian Gordon Greenidge’s tally of century partnerships againstIndia.Only Desmond Haynes, another West Indian, has featured in morecentury partnerships against India – 11 to be exact. Jayasuriya wentpast fellow teammate Marvan Atapattu’s record of eight centurypartnerships for Sri Lanka against India.Ashish Nehra by conceding 65 runs in his nine overs recorded thesecond most expensive figures by an Indian in a nine over spell infinal of a tournament. The worst still remains with Venkatapathy Rajuwho had returned the figures of 9-0-70-1 against South Africa atSharjah on April 19,1996. Saurav Ganguly by holding three catches inthe field established a new record of most catches by a fielder in amatch against Sri Lanka. 16 players (including Ganguly) had taken 2catches in a match on 25 occasions prior to Ganguly’s performance.The wicket of Harbhajan was 250th for Muttiah Muralitharan. He wasplaying his 174th match. Muralitharan became first Sri Lankan and onlythe eighth bowler in ODI history to do so.By an odd coincidence Muralitharan has exactly 250 runs to his credit.He thus joined 14 other players who have taken more (or at least samenumber of ) wickets than their career run-aggregate with a minimumqualification of 50 wickets. The details :
Player
For
M
Inns
Runs
HS
Ave
RC
Wkts
Best
M Muralitharan
SL
174
79
250
18
5.43
6335
250
7/30
AA Donald
SA
136
33
88
12
4.63
4835
226
6/23
GD McGrath
Aus
140
41
70
11
4.12
5002
212
5/14
EJ Chatfield
NZ
114
48
118
19*
10.73
3620
140
5/34
BP Patterson
WI
59
20
44
13*
8.80
2206
90
6/29
TM Alderman
Aus
65
18
32
9*
2.67
2056
88
5/17
CG Rackemann
Aus
52
18
34
9*
2.83
1833
82
5/16
RD King
WI
46
22
62
12*
6.89
1633
68
4/25
Maninder Singh
Ind
59
18
49
8*
12.25
2067
66
4/22
SLV Raju
Ind
53
16
32
8
4.00
2014
63
4/46
BA Reid
Aus
61
21
49
10
3.77
2201
63
5/53
DS Mohanty
Ind
45
11
28
18*
5.60
1662
57
4/56
LS Pascoe
Aus
29
11
39
15*
9.75
1066
53
5/30
GI Allott
NZ
31
11
17
7*
3.40
1207
52
4/35
KSC de Silva
SL
38
19
39
13*
6.50
1323
52
3/18
India has now lost eight consecutive tournament finals (four underGanguly’s captaincy). India last won a ODI tournament way back inNovember 1998 when it won the Coca Cola Cup at Sharjah beatingZimbabwe in final.A total of 102 tournaments (involving of three or more teams) havebeen played so far . On seven occasions the tournament winner wasdecided on the round robin basis and no final match was played. Inremaining 95 tournaments (in which final was played), India hasqualified for the final on 33 occasions and ended up as runners-up on17 occasions. Only Pakistan has lost more tournament finals(considering best of three finals as one single instance) on moreoccasions – 19 to be precise.Russel Arnold was winning Man of the Match award for the fourth timein his 62nd match.Sanath Jayasuriya was winning Man of the Series award in a tournamentfor the fifth time in his career. His complete list of other suchawards : in World Cup 1995-96, in Singer Cup in 1995-96,in PepsiIndependence Cup in 1996-97,in Coca Cola Champions Trophy in2000-01….and now.At the end of the tournament : Sri Lanka’s overall ODI record : played362, won 149,lost 197,abandoned 14 and tied 2.India’s overall ODI record : played 476,won 217,lost 238,abandoned 18and tied 3.New Zealand’s overall ODI record : played 385,won 155, lost208,abandoned 18 and tied 4.Sanath Jayasuriya’s captaincy record : played 60,won 37,lost21,abandoned one and tied one.Saurav Ganguly’s captaincy record : played 45,won 23,lost 22.Stephen Fleming’s captaincy record : played 96,won 36,lost52,abandoned 7 and tied one.Craig McMillan’s capatincy record : played 6,won 2,lost 4.