low scoring games

VENUE : SHARJAH
YEAR: 1999


MATCH : SRI LANKA vs PAKISTAN

It was Coca Cola Champions Trophy played among Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka..

West Indies were captained by Lara, Pakistan by Wasim Akram and Sri Lanka by Jayasuriya..

Each team played every other team twice and the top 2 teams went into the finals. Played in the month of October.

The match under consideration is the 3rd match between SriLanka and Pakistan..

Sri Lanka - Atapattu, Kaluwitharana+,Jayasuriya* , Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Chamara Silva, Suresh Perera, Vaas,  Muralitharan,   Zoysa

Pakistan - Saeed Anwar, Amir Sohail ,Inzamam, Yousuf Youhana, Hasan Raja, Moin Khan+, Azhar Mahmood, Razzaq, Akram*, Shoaib Malik, Arshad Khan

Pak won the toss, chose to bat.. Amir Sohail was very slow, both the openers fell after a stand of 37.. From 38 for 2, the repair work was done by Youhana and Inzy; 48 and 42 runs respectively..
They were too slow in scoring these runs, when Inzy was out the scored read 131 for 3 in 35 overs..
From there on it was a batting collapse for Pakistanis..
Arnold ,Vaas and Murali took 2 wickets each.
Murali was miserly giving just 22 in 10 overs.. Arnold bowled well.. SRL never allowed Pakistan to dominate..

Sri Lanka came out to bat chasing just 197 from 50 overs.. The batting order was changed. Kalu opened with Atapattu.. Kalu in his typical form and style notched up a brilliant 50. The pitch seemed to behave differently when he was out there.. Arnold was sent up the order after Atapattu got out..

A match winning partnership from of 115 between them was ended by Razzaq.. De Silva walked in.. When Arnold got out, the score read 173 for 3 in 40 overs..

Kalu scored 75 and Arnold 61..

they needed just 24 from ten overs with eight wickets remaining before Arnold got out..

Sultan of swing returned, bowled the 42nd over to dismiss Jayasuriya for 1.. 174 for 4..

Akram bowled the 44th over and this time bowled de Silva for 9.. 177 for 5..

Reverse swing is something that Pakistan always are proud exponents of.. From the likes of Imran to Wasim to Waqar to Aqib Javed to Rana Naved etc...

This time the king of reverse swing was Razzaq.. Razzaq in 1999 was at the peak of his bowling career, bowled with a lot of pace and swung the ball.. He edged past Azhar Mahmood to retain his place over Azhar in the days to come..

7 overs, 1 wicket for 28 were his figures when he bowled 46th over..
45.5 Jyawardene was caught by Moin off Razzaq for 1.. 186 for 6
45.6 Perera bowled. 186 for 7

Chamara scored of the 47th over..
On the last ball of 48th over, Sri Lanka had scored 194 for 7.. Razzaq struck again getting rid of Vaas..
194 for 8..

Only batsman left was Chamara with only Murali and Zoysa left.. 3 runs to win, 2 overs..

SRL scored 2 runs of this over.. Murali was run out in the last ball of the 49th over.. 196 for 9...

Last over, 1 run needed.. 1 wicket in hand..

1st ball of the 50th over, Chamara was bowled by Razzaq..

Match ended in a tie..

In an astonishing nine-ball spell, Abdur Razzaq took four for nought to snatch a tie from what seemed a certain Sri Lankan victory.But when Razzaq returned to bowl three of the last five overs, the Sri Lankan collapse had already started. Even so, with 14 required from 30 balls and five wickets left, they still looked safe. he sliced through the lower order with unplayable reverse swing, hitting the stumps three times to complete a career-best five for 31.