The Austral-Asia Cup was a One Day International cricket tournament held at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
| Austral-Asia Cup | |
|---|---|
| Administrator | Sharjah Cricket Association & International Cricket Council |
| Format | One Day International |
| First tournament | 1986 Austral-Asia Cup, United Arab Emirates |
| Last tournament | 1994 Austral-Asia Cup, United Arab Emirates |
| Next tournament | Replaced by ICC Champions Trophy |
| Tournament format | Round Robin and Knock Out |
| Number of teams | 7 |
| Current champion | Pakistan (3rd title) |
| Most successful | Pakistan (3 titles) |
| Most runs | Mohammad Azharuddin (371) |
| Most wickets | Wasim Akram (18) |
The Arab cricketer, enthusiast and millionaire Abdur Rahman Bukhathir brought cricket initially to Sharjah in the mid-1980s and he masterminded a one day tournament involving Asia and Australasia's main cricketing nations - Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Contents |
The first tournament was held at Sharjah in April 1986. India beat New Zealand and Pakistan beat Australia in the first round. Sri Lanka as Asia Cup winners got a bye to the semi-final, where they lost to India. New Zealand fielding a weakened team were bowled all out for 64 in the other semi. Abdul Qadir took 4-9 in 10 overs.
Pakistan and India met in the final in front of a capacity crowd of 20,000. India scored 245-7 with Sunil Gavaskar top-scoring with 92. Pakistan need 90 to win of the last ten overs. Javed Miandad held the innings together. In a tense finale, the last over bowled by Chetan Sharma began with 11 runs required. During the over two wickets fell and with Pakistan needing 4 runs and India one final wicket from the last ball. Javed hit the ball into the crowd for a six. Pakistan finished on 248-9 with Javed finishing on 116 not out. It is still considered as one of the most historic moments in one-day cricket history and Javed became a Pakistani national hero. The win also gave a psychological advantage for Pakistan against India in Cricket which lasted almost for a decade.
Here is the final statistics for last over bowled by Chetan Sharma
| Over | Batsman | Runs Scored | How Out | Runs to Win | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.1 | Wasim Akram | 0 | Run out | 10 | Akram ran out to give Miandad Strike | |
| 49.2 | Javed Miandad | 4 | - | 06 | Miandad struck boundary | |
| 49.3 | Javed Miandad | 1 | - | 05 | Single taken | |
| 49.4 | Zulqarnain | 0 | Bowled Chetan Sharma | 05 | ||
| 49.5 | Tauseef Ahmed | 1 | save | 04 | Azharuddin missed the run out chance of Tauseef | |
| 49.6 | Javed Miandad | 6 | - | 0 | Miandad struck Sharma's full toss for "[]" |
The second tournament took place in April 1990 at Sharjah with Bangladesh joining in. The six teams were split into 2 groups:
Group A: Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh
Group B: India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
With Bangladesh and India falling by the wayside, Australia beat Sri Lanka in the first semi-final with Simon O'Donnell hitting a then world record 50 in 18 balls. Pakistan again bowled New Zealand out for less than 100 to go through to the final. During the tournament Waqar Younis took 4 wickets in an innings three successive times: 4-42, 6-26 and 5-20.
Pakistan scored 266-7 in the final and Australia's 10 match winning streak was brought to an end by Wasim Akram. He ended their innings with a hat-trick. Australia making 230.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) replaced Bangladesh as the sixth team in the tournament. Again there were two groups of three teams.
Group A: India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates
Group B: Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The UAE and Sri Lanka did not make the semis. India defeated Australia in the first semi-final and this time Pakistan scored 328-2 with a then world record stand for the 2nd wicket between Aamer Sohail (134) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (137 not out) of 263 against New Zealand and won by 62 runs.
This set up the final most people wanted: India v Pakistan. Pakistan made 250 for 6 Aamer Sohail top scoring with 69 and India were bowled all out for 211. Pakistan had a hat-trick of Austral-Asia Cup triumphs.
Due to the busy international fixture schedule and the match fixing allegations that tarnished cricket at places like Sharjah, the Austral-Asia Cup hasn't been contested since 1994. Tournaments such as the ICC Champions Trophy have partially taken its place.