29 Oct 2000, Finals, Coca Cola Champions trophy, Sharjah.
It was the finals of the tri series between Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and India. SL led under Sanath Jayasuriya remained unbeaten throughout the tournament.
On the day of finals, Sanath won the toss and opt to bat on a sunny noon. Indian bowlers made the most of the movement available early on. They reduced SL to 116/4 around 28 overs.
At the other end was the captain of SL who was playing an uncharacteristic knock. He anchored the innings for some time to avoid further collapse. Some dropped chances helped him to get his hundred in 118 balls.
And then, it was all Jayasuriya’s show. He hammered the fast bowling trio of Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Venkatesh Prasad for fun. In the next 43 balls, he hit 89 runs and just killed the game.
And how did he do that.. He didn't even wear helmet in the later part of his innings. What else a fast bowler can be hurt more of !!
Russell Arnold at the other end played his part with a 62-balls-52.
India had no time to look what happened with them. SL scored whopping 183 runs in last 22 overs. In the last 10 overs, they scored almost 100 runs.
Sanath Jayasuriya alone scored 63.21% of team's runs. He surely led from the front and boy, Indian shoulders were down.
300 was a big target those days. But the Indians were just mentally bruised by Jayasuriya’s epic knock. And it affected their batting.
The duo of Vaas and Muralitharan just ran through the Indian batting lineup. Indian batters fell like a pack of cards.
Vaas bowled an amazing spell of 9.3–1–14–5, while Muralitharan spun his magic with a spell of 6–3–6–3.
India were dismissed for their lowest Odi total of 54. It remains their lowest Odi total till date.
Sri Lanka beat India by a massive margin of 245 runs. Sanath Jayasuriya alone had outscored India by 135 runs.
It was one of the most one-sided match in the history of cricket.
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