DATE : 11-11-1996
VENUE : Sharjah C.A. Stadium
MATCH : 4th Match, Singer Champions Trophy, 1996/97
Writer : Bhavya Kumar Vasudevan
The C.A. Stadium in Sharjah saw two evenly matched teams go head to head in the 4th match of the Champions Trophy. New Zealand had played two games, won one and lost one, whereas Sri Lanka played just one game and won that quite convincingly. Pakistan was the third team involved in the tournament.
New Zealand’s captain Lee Germon won the toss and elected to bat first. The decision was not justified as the Kiwis got to a terrible start when seamer Sanjeeva DeSilva got rid of Craig Spearman and followed up by dismissing Adam Parore off successive deliveries. New Zealand were in dire straits at 8 for 2 in the 6th over. Nathan Astle, at the other end could do nothing but watch as the two wickets fell. Stephen Fleming joined Astle and tried to stabilize the innings. However, he too had no answers to the pace of DeSilva who cleaned him up for a mere 13 runs. Chris Cairns, who was expected to free New Zealand from the web they had got themselves into, failed miserably as he was drastically run out. New Zealand were down to 61 for 4 in the 23rd over. Astle was joined by Mark Greatbatch. The pair tried to stabilize the innings and in the meantime Nathan Astle reached his 3rd 50 in ODI’s. His innings was however cut short soon after that, when he was brilliantly caught by Roshan Mahanama off the bowling of Muralitharan. Astle’s 66 had helped New Zealand reach 136 with only 8 overs remaining. Wickets fell in a heap as Greatbatch and Harris tried to score runs at a quick pace and New Zealand finished their innings on 169 for 8 in 50 overs. Sanjeeva DeSilva was the most successful bowler with figures of 18 for 3 in 8 overs.
Sri Lanka’s innings got off to a similar start. Romesh Kaluwitharana edged a delivery to Lee Germon off Danny Morrison for a duck. Marvan Atapattu joined Sanath Jayasuriya and tried to make up for that early loss. At the score of 31, he was unable to control a drive and Morrison was vigilant enough to take the catch off his own bowling. Aravinda DeSilva failed, and was cleaned up by Simon Doull for just one. Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne began to restructure the innings, but were left with a mess when Jayasuriya was run out. Sri Lanka were 81 for 4 out of which 53 runs were scored by Jayasuriya. Cairns came charging in and made up for his poor batting display by taking 2 quick wickets, that of Tillakaratne and Mahanama off successive deliveries. Sri Lanka were 98 for 6 and the game looked to be evenly balanced at this stage. Sri Lanka’s captain cool Arjuna Ranatunga had an able all rounder in Upul Chandana for support. Together they added 42 runs for the 7th wicket. At this stage it looked like Ranatunga would win it for Sri Lanka, when part timer Nathan Astle was introduced. He removed Chandana for 14, and Sri Lanka were 140 for 7. Chaminda Vaas came in and looked like winning the match on his own. He smashed a boundary and one six to almost win it for the Lankans. Well almost. As soon as he lost strike, there was Danny Morrison charged up as his life depended on winning this match. He got Ranatunga to edge a delivery to Germon that charged up the entire team. Sri Lanka were 159 for 8. The next over by Dipak Patel yielded only one run as Vaas and DeSilva played it out safely.
One could almost feel that something was about to happen in Danny Morrison’s final over. It was a dramatic over. The first delivery was a wide. Second was smashed to the long off boundary by Vaas. Third was a wide. Fourth delivery, the batsman ran for a bye. Sri Lanka had leveled the score. The bye ensured that they would not lose. Fifth delivery was the delivery of the innings as it had DeSilva completely bedazzled. A sharp yorker had him clean bowled. The sixth delivery was edged by Muralitharan, who was caught at slips. New Zealand were ecstatic. Match was tied.
Such a low scoring game ended in such a dramatic fashion. Danny Morrison was adjudged the Man of the match for his fiery spell of 5 for 34 and the last minute heroics with a never say die attitude. It was an amazing game for the people present in the stadium on that day. A dead game was revived with spirit and commitment by a unit who were written off before the tournament began and also after they had managed only 169 earlier that day. The moral coming out of this match was to never give up the fight at any stage before the conclusion of a match. This was definitely the case with New Zealand on that day.