India pocket Independence Cup
Beats Pak in record-making humdinger
Manik Banerjee in Dhaka
India pulled off a sensational three-wicket win with one ball to spare against Pakistan in the third final to lift the Coca Cola Independence Cup at the national stadium here yesterday.
Chasing a mammoth target of 315 runs in the match which was reduced to 48 overs each, Indian openers Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly gave their team a blazing start.
And when Hrishikesh Kanitkar pulled Saqlain Mushtaq for a boundary off the second-last ball of the match to cross Pakistan's score, the Indian team's performance entered the record books for the highest total successfully chased.
Ganguly was later adjudged the man-of-the-match and bagged the Worldtel 'most valuable player' trophy while Sachin earned the 'man-of-the-series' award for his consistent good showing.
Sachin Tendulkar started off with a quickfire 41 off 26 balls. At the other end, Ganguly was firing on all cylinders himself. When Tendulkar fell, holing out to extra cover Azhar Mehmood, the score was 71. That was in the 9th over.
Ganguly took charge thereafter, backed by Robin Singh at the other end. Singh forced Ganguly into some very strenuous running between the wickets, causing the latter to finally call on a runner. The 100 came in 11.1 overs, compared to Pakistan's 17.4 overs.
Even diehard Indian fans doubted if their team could make the target off 315 runs, specially after their dismal performance in their last match against Pakistan.
Singh, however survived twice, at 37, when he was dropped by Yusuf Yonha off Manzoor Akhtar and later at 53 by Izaz Ahmed off Mohammad Hussain. The total was 172 and 197 respectively. India reached the 200-mark in the 30th over. And soon after Ganguly completed his century, his second in one-day internationals, taking a single off Mohammed Hussain. It had taken him 115 balls and included nine fours and one six.
Just when it appeared that the team would see the match through left-arm off-spinner Hussain, the main architect of Pakistan's victory in the last match, broke the partnership, getting Singh on 82 to hole to Aaquib Javed. The score was 250.
India was 268 for two and needing 47 in over eight overs when the umpires -- South Africa's Rudi Koertzen and Zimbabwe's Russel Tiffin -- decided that the light was too bad to play in. Just two overs before, the Indians had turned down a suggestion by the umpires to stop play for the same reason.
The umpires walked off with the Pakistani team. Azharuddin and Ganguly remained till match referee, England's Mike Denness, ordered the umpires and the Pakistani team back on the field.
Azharuddin fell soon, hitting Saqlain uppishly to Aamir Sohail at mid-wicket in the 42nd over, having scored just four runs off 11 balls. Eight deliveries later, Ganguly followed, bowled by Javed. He had scored 124 runs in 139 balls, ending up with ten fours and one six.
Jadeja and Sidhu made eight and five apiece before falling to Saqlain, one bowled, the other leg before.
Nayan Mongia came in for a ten-run partnership with Hrishikesh Kanitkar, making nine off them of the six balls he faced before he was run out in the 47th over. India needed nine runs in the last over when Srinath joined Kanitkar. At the bowler's end was Saqlain Mustaq, who had bagged the most wickets in the match
Kanitkar took a single off the first ball, Srinath took two runs each of the next two balls and the single off the next. Three runs, two balls. Then Kanitkar clubbed Saqlain over deep midwicket for four. And the stands went berserk.
When India made the record of successfully chasing the biggest target, it surpassed Sri Lanka's victory over Zimbabwe which made 312 in the 1992 World Cup in New Zealand.
Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin received the trophy and the prize money of 12,000 dollars from Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Pakistan captain Rashid Latif picked the runners-up prize of 5,000 dollars.
Azharuddin attributed the victory to good team effort, specially complimenting Ganguly and Tendulkar for the good start and Robin Singh for keeping up the tempo. But he warned that the Indian bowling and fielding had a lot of improving to do. With this match, Azharuddin equalled Allan Border's record of playing the most one-day internationals, 273.
The tempo really mounted around the time Ajay Jadeja became out in the 46th over. He was the sixth Indian wicket to fall. The total was 296.
Earlier, Pakistan batsmen-opener Saeed Anwar and Ijaz Ahmed made full use of five dropped chances. Anwar made 140 off 132 balls including 15 fours and two mighty sixes. Ahmed scored 117 off 112 balls, hitting seven fours and one six. It was Anwar's 15th century, Ahmed's seventh.
None of the Indian bowlers, including debutant left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi and Hrishikesh Kanitkar posed any difficulty for the Pakistani batsmen after Azharuddin called correctly and opted to field.
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