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Change Your Life! |
Pakistan made night to remember victory in Asia Cup Final |
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June 8, 2000
Pakistan made it a night to remember with a comprehensive 39- run win over defending champions Sri Lanka in the final of the 7th Asia Cup at the National Stadium here tonight. After setting the islanders a difficult 278 run target, the 1992 World Cup champions gifted themselves their maiden continental championship at the sixth try, winning the elusive trophy with style and flair. |
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Marvan Atapattu played his heart out with a 124-ball 100 (ten 4s) and though he received some support down the order, the size of the task demanded at least one other big inning, which was not forthcoming. He still managed to silence the packed stadium till the last eight overs before Wasim Akram whipped out the tail with his trademark Yorkers. Playing key roles for the winners were skipper Moin Khan -- also declared man ofteh match -- with a blazing 31-ball 56 and Inzamam-ul Haq who partnered his captain in a 104-run fifth wicket stand in just 61 balls. Supporting roles came from were Saeed Anwar with his foundation-laying 82 and a disciplined set of bowlers and fielders who kept the pressure on from Ball One. It was also Moin's third successive one-day title win in a row beginning with Sharjah in April. Sri Lanka had earlier helped dig their own grave with some ridiculously poor fielding that saw five catches go down including two through the hands of their captain and a first-over run out that had them on the back foot almost as soon as the run chase began.
Yet the lone hand from the elegant Atapattu and his two gallant partnerships almost denied the desperate Pakistanis - for the fourth wicket with Aravinda de Silva worth 71 in 107 balls and for the fifth wicket with Russel Arnold of 79 in 86 balls. Upul Chandana's cameo (24, 16 balls, two 4s, one 6) came a little too late a make a real difference.
Akram finished with 2 for 38 from eight overs, offspinner Arshad Khan with 2 for 42 from 10, Mohammad Akram with 2 for 50 from 8 and Abdur Razzak with 1 for 40 from 7.2 overs.
Sanath Jayasuriya would like to bury this match, and the earlier one, as deep in the recesses of his mind as possible. He batted indifferently, ran his partner Romesh Kaluwitharne out in the very first over, dropped two catches that virtually rejuvenated Pakistan and led without imagination.
At one stage, with Moin and Inzamam blasting along, he seemed to lose his grip completely and let the batsmen pile up 40 runs in the last two overs, one of which the Lanka skipper bowled himself for 21 runs.
A promoted Chaminda Vaas came and went in a 15-run second wicket stand with Jayasuriya and it needed the Atapattu-de Silva partnership to keep the Lankans afloat. With Arnold (41, 44 balls, four 4s two 6s), Atapattu looked like he had matters in hand despite an ask that had reached eight per over but a mishit sweep from the left-hander against the economical Arshad Khan stifled that hope.
Earlier, after Anwar set the pace with his 115-ball 82 at the top of the order, Inzamam and Moin upped the tempo dramatically in the dying overs. Accelerating all the way, they pasted 72 runs in the last five overs, the 49th going for 29 and the last over for 21. It was breathtaking stuff and aided greatly by some queer captaincy by Jayasuriya who under bowled his regulars and ended up conceding 63 runs in his eight overs.
Moin blasted his way to 56 from 31 deliveries with three fours and four sixes, while Inzamam finished on 72 from 66 balls, that had five fours and a six.
Anwar (twice), and Shahid Afridi, Inzamam and Moin (once each) were to benefit from 'lives' and in each case the error was to prove costly. The left-hander was spilled on 18 by Kaluwitharne and again shortly after and went on to score 82. Afridi was dropped at 7 by Jayasuriya off Zoysa and totaled 22, Moin put down on 19 before scoring 56 and Inzamam was on 57 and finished with 72. All in all, a day Sri Lanka and their fielding coach Trevor Chappel would like to forget.
Anwar came out looking for runs and but for the couple of hiccups early on, was solid as a rock till he fell in the 40th over. He got most of his runs, as is usually the case, square of the wicket with the cut and pull predominant early on and the sweep taking over once the slower bowlers came on.
Anwar lost Imran Nazir (3) early before stabilising the innings in the unlikely company of Afridi and then Youhana (25, 54 balls). But it was the breathtaking assault in the last 10 overs that took the game away from the Sri Lankans as the captain and vice-captain cut loose.
Anwar's 82 was punctuated with six boundaries and a sweetly hooked six off the unlucky Zoysa, off whose bowling the maximum number of catches went down. The sweep was to prove Anwar's undoing as he top-edged a stroke against Jayasuriya for Muttiah Muralitharan to pouch at fine leg.
Nazir was caught and bowled Zoysa, Afridi lofted the same bowler to Russel Arnold near the midwicket fence and Youhana was brilliantly taken low and hard by legspinner Upul Chandana off his own bowling.
Thus with 10 overs and a ball to go, Moin and Inzamam came together and lift the pace of run getting which had till then been idling along at around the 4.5 per over. The Multan Mauler did not look in the least inconvenienced by the fact that he was using a runner and threw his bat around effectively even as his skipper caught fire at the other end.
So easily was Moin batting that he would walk across his stumps and play the ball behind square on the leg side. One of his sixes also came off a similar effort, the ball swung off the pads from Zoysa over the fine leg fence. It was audacious stuff, exciting in the extreme and the huge number of Pakistan supporters in the stands loved every moment of it. Scoreboard of Asia Cup Final between Sri Lanka and Pakistan
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