1997–98 Coca-Cola Cup

The Coca-Cola Cup was a tri-nation cricket tournament played in Sharjah in 1998.[1] This was the first cricket tournament in Sharjah to be sponsored by Coca-Cola and was played under the aegis of the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series. The Round Robin format was followed with each team playing the other two teams twice each. All matches were day and night games and the tournament featured India, Australia and New Zealand cricket teams.[2] This tournament was the first one in ten years which was held in Sharjah that Pakistan was not a part of. 24,000 spectators witnessed the final, a record turnout for a match at Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, where all the matches were played.[1][3]

1998 Coca-Cola Cup
Part of Australian cricket team in India in 1997–98
India v/s Australia match in progress during the Coca-Cola Cup
Date17 – 24 April 1998
LocationSharjah
ResultWon by India
Player of the seriesSachin Tendulkar (Ind)
Teams
India Australia New Zealand
Captains
Mohammad Azharuddin Steve Waugh Stephen Fleming
Most runs
Sachin Tendulkar (434)
Sourav Ganguly (184)
Michael Bevan (276)
Adam Gilchrist (149)
Stephen Fleming (187)
Craig McMillan (152)
Most wickets
Prasad (9)
Anil Kumble (8)
Damien Fleming (10)
Steve Waugh (5)
Dion Nash (6)
Chris Cairns (4)

India won the tournament after losing all their league games against Australia in a reversal of what happened during the Pepsi Cup (sponsored by Coke's competitor Pepsi) in India just preceding this tournament, where Australia lost all their league ties to India but beat India in the finals to claim the title.[1][4]

Australia won all their league matches and qualified for the final, while both India and New Zealand had won a game each, which meant that the second finalist was chosen based on a better net run rate.[4][5]

Winners India took home US$40,000 in prize money, while Australia got US$30,000 for being runners up and third place New Zealand got US$15,000. Sachin Tendulkar won the man of the tournament award and an Opel Astra that went with the award, apart from winning other awards for most sixes and fastest fifty. Damien Fleming and Ricky Ponting of Australia won the best bowler and best fielder awards respectively.[6]

Group stage

Team P W L T NR Pts NRR
 Australia 440008+0.788
 India 413002−0.331
 New Zealand 413002−0.401

Matches

17 April (D/N)
Scorecard
India 
9/220 (50 overs)
v
 New Zealand
205 (47.5 overs)
Sourav Ganguly 105 (140)
Dion Nash 4/38 (10 overs)
Stephen Fleming 75 (97)
Ajit Agarkar 4/35 (10 overs)
India won by 15 runs
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Javed Akhtar (Pak)
Player of the match: Ajit Agarkar (Ind)
  • India won the toss and elected to bat.
  • Harbhajan Singh (Ind) made his ODI debut.

18 April (D/N)
Scorecard
New Zealand 
159 (48.4 overs)
v
 Australia
4/160 (36.5 overs)
Stephen Fleming 59 (94)
Damien Fleming 4/28 (9.4 overs)
Adam Gilchrist 57 (89)
Chris Harris 2/31 (10 overs)
Australia won by 6 wickets
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Javed Akhtar (Pak) and Ian Robinson (Zim)
Player of the match: Damien Fleming (Aus)
  • New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat.

19 April (D/N)
Scorecard
Australia 
9/264 (50 overs)
v
 India
206 (44 overs)
Michael Bevan 58 (83)
Harbhajan Singh 3/41 (10 overs)
Sachin Tendulkar 80(72)
Steve Waugh 4/40 (9 overs)
Australia won by 58 runs
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Ian Robinson (Zim)
Player of the match: Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)
  • Australia won the toss and elected to bat.

20 April (D/N)
Scorecard
India 
181 (49.3 overs)
v
 New Zealand
6/183 (49 overs)
Sachin Tendulkar 38 (58)
Chris Cairns 3/26 (10 overs)
Craig McMillan 59 (122)
Anil Kumble 2/26 (10 overs)
New Zealand won by 4 wickets
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Javed Akhtar (Pak)
Player of the match: Craig McMillan (NZ)
  • India won the toss and elected to bat.
  • Paul Wiseman (NZ) made his ODI debut.

21 April (D/N)
Scorecard
New Zealand 
5/259 (50 overs)
v
 Australia
5/261 (47.5 overs)
Nathan Astle 78 (125)
Ian Harvey 2/59 (10 overs)
Tom Moody 63 (74)
Dion Nash 2/39 (9 overs)
Australia won by 5 wickets
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Javed Akhtar (Pak) and Ian Robinson (Zim)
Player of the match: Tom Moody (Aus)
  • New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat.

22 April (D/N)
Scorecard
Australia 
7/284 (50 overs)
v
 India
5/250 (46 overs)
Michael Bevan 101* (103)
Venkatesh Prasad 2/41 (8 overs)
Sachin Tendulkar 143 (131)
Damien Fleming 2/46 (10 overs)
Australia won by 26 runs (D/L)
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Ian Robinson (Zim)
Player of the match: Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)
  • Australia won the toss and elected to bat.
  • Sandstorm disrupted the play by about 25 minutes. Indian target was revised to 276 in 46 overs after the break.
  • India required 254 to pass New Zealand on net run rate, and qualify for the final. After the break it was 237 in 46 overs.

Final

24 April (D/N)
Scorecard
Australia 
9/272 (50 overs)
v
 India
4/275 (48.3 overs)
Darren Lehmann 70 (59)
Venkatesh Prasad 2/32 (10 overs)
Sachin Tendulkar 134 (131)
Damien Fleming 2/47 (10 overs)
India won by 6 wickets
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Javed Akhtar (Pak)
Player of the match: Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)
  • India won the toss and elected to field
  • India won the 1997/98 Coca-Cola Cup

Statistics

Most runs

PlayerTeamRunsInnsAvgS/RHS100s50s
Sachin Tendulkar India435587.00100.4614321
Michael Bevan Australia276555.2082.63101*12
Stephen Fleming New Zealand187446.7571.927502
Sourav Ganguly India184536.8070.2210310
Craig McMillan New Zealand152438.0059.845901

Source:[7]

Most wickets

PlayerTeamWktsMtsAveS/REconBBI
Damien Fleming Australia10415.6022.64.144/28
Venkatesh Prasad India9521.7729.34.452/32
Anil Kumble India8526.1237.34.193/39
Dion Nash New Zealand6315.3323.04.04/38
Ajit Agarkar India6216.018.05.334/35

Source:[8]

Desert Storm

The tournament is best known for Sachin Tendulkar's back to back centuries against Australia (popularly known as 'Desert Storm') - the first helped India qualify for the final based on a better net run rate, and the second, in the finals which was played on Tendulkar's 25th birthday, helped India beat Australia to win the tournament.[9] In lighter vein, Australian bowler Shane Warne claimed that he had "nightmares" at the thought of bowling to Tendulkar after being dominated by him in the tournament.[10][11] Tendulkar is credited for single-handedly winning the tournament for India.[11] The last league match, where India played Australia needing to finish with a win or a better net run rate than New Zealand to qualify for the finals, was interrupted by a sandstorm.[12][13][14] Tendulkar's hundred following the storm in that match, which ensured that India qualified for the finals, came to be known as the "sandstorm innings" or "Desert Storm".[15][16][17][18]

The other Indian player who made a notable contribution in the tournament victory was Sourav Ganguly, whose century against New Zealand resulted in the only Indian victory in the league stage.[5] For Australia, Michael Bevan made a century in the last league game versus India, which resulted in an Australian victory but couldn't stop India from qualifying for the finals.[14]

References

  1. "Coca-Cola Cup (Sharjah), 1997–98". Wisden Almanack (1999). Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  2. "Coca-Cola Cricket Cup to be held in Sharjah". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  3. "Desert storm Tendulkar leaves Australia in disarray". The Indian Express. 25 April 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  4. "Sachin's B-Day, India's D-Day". The Indian Express. 24 April 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  5. "Cricket: A Numbers Game?". ESPNCricinfo. 22 April 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  6. "Coca-Cola Cup Sharjah 1998". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  7. "Coca-Cola Cup, 1997/98 / Records / Most runs". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  8. "Coca-Cola Cup, 1997/98 / Records / Most wickets". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  9. "Tendulkar dedicates it to his brother Ajit". The Times of India. 2 March 2003. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  10. "Star wars". The Indian Express. 3 June 1999. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  11. "'Nightmare' comment was a joke, says Warne". The Hindu. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  12. "It's a surrender, says Rajsingh Dungarpur". The Indian Express. 1 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  13. "I disagree with Sachin Tendulkar". Zeenews.com. 21 September 2009. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  14. "Tendulkar's century sends India storming into final". The Indian Express. 23 April 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  15. "A once-in-a-century star: Sachin". The Times of India. 14 November 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  16. "Just the second time, Sachin's hundred against Australia goes in vain". Mid Day. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  17. "The first of the two Sachin Tendulkar desert storms".
  18. "Moments which mean Sachin Tendulkar". Archived from the original on 2013-05-25. Retrieved 2013-04-24.

Notes

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