Pakistan, India achieve world record
aggregate in Karachi ODI
By Gul Hameed Bhatti
KARACHI: On Saturday, here at the National Stadium, Pakistan lost a real nail-biter of a One-day International to arch-rivals India by a mere five runs. But they had been set a world record target of 350 runs in their fifty overs if they hoped to win the match, the first of a series of five games that have been scheduled in this revival of cricketing ties before the two previously warring neighbours.
At the end of the day, a world record One-day International total of runs had been achieved. India, put into bat first by Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq - a decision that’ll be a point of discussion in cricketing circles for some time, scored 349 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the allotted overs. Pakistan replied with 344 losing their eighth wicket on the last possible delivery of the match.
The grand total of 693 runs for 15 wickets in the 100 overs became the highest aggregate ever achieved in the 2,113 One-day Internationals played until now (Sunday). The previous highest of 664 runs (for 19 wickets in 99.4 overs) had also involved Pakistan.
In Singapore in 1995-96, Sri Lanka scored 349 for nine and then bowled out Pakistan for 315 to win the match by 34 runs. The same season, West Indies (333-7) and Sri Lanka (329) - the latter losing by just a four-run margin, aggregated 662 runs for 17 wickets in 99.3 overs while playing in Sharjah. The other tallies of 650 runs or above in One-day Internationals have been as follows: 660-19 (99.5 overs) Pakistan (371-9) v Sri Lanka (289) at Nairobi 1996-97, 656-10 (99.1) South Africa (326-3) v Australia (330-7) at Port Elizabeth 2001-02, 655-19 (97) New Zealand (349-9) v India (306) at Rajkot 1999-00, 652-12 (100) Sri Lanka (398-5) v Kenya (254-7) at Kandy 1995-96, 651-13 (99.3) England (325-5) v India (326-8) at Lord’s 2002 and 650-15 (100) Australia (349-6) v New Zealand (301-9) at Christchurch 1999-00.
Pakistan, with the defeat against India on Saturday, lost a One-day International for the 13th time here at the National Stadium. Since the first such match played on this ground since November 21, 1980 - when Pakistan were defeated by the West Indies by four wickets - the home team has appeared here a total of 26 times now. Of these matches, they have won 11 while two failed to produce any result.
Overall, 28 One-day Internationals have been played at the National Stadium Karachi. Two didn’t feature the Pakistan team. These were the 1987 World Cup match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies and the 1996 World Cup quarter-final encounter between South Africa and West Indies.
India and Pakistan have now faced each other at this venue on four occasions - India winning twice and Pakistan once with one match ending as a no-result fixture. On January 21, 1983, India 197-6 in 40 overs (K Srikkanth 40; Imran Khan 3-31) lost to Pakistan 198-2 in 35 overs (MUdassar Nazar 61*, Zaheer Abbas 113; B S Sandhu 2-38) by an eight wickets margin.
On December 20, 1989, the match was abandoned due to crowd trouble. In 14.3 overs, Pakistan had lost three wickets with only 28 runs on the board, with medium-pacer Manoj Prabahkar taking all three wickets at a personal cost of four runs.
On September 30, 1997, India beat Pakistan by four wickets. Pakistan scored 265-4 in 47.2 overs as their innings was cut short due to crowd problems. Shahid Afridi scored 72, Ijaz Ahmed 31, Inzamam-ul-Haq 74 not out and Moin Khan 31 not out. R K Chauhan took 2-48 and N M Kulkarni 2-66 in their respective 10 overs.
India’s target was 266 runs in 47 overs. They scored 266-6 in 46.3 overs to win the match. Their major scorers were S C Ganguly 89, V G Kambli 53, R R Singh 31 not out and S S Karim 26. Waqar Younis bagged 2-36 in nine overs.
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