29th October 2000 observed one of most one-sided matches in the one-day cricket history. Generally, most of the biggest wins and one-sided matches involved non-Test-playing countries but this one involved two strong teams in Sri Lanka and India. It was the Final of the Coca Cola Champions Trophy at Sharjah.
Only a few days back Indians were rolled over by Muttiah Muralitharan as he took seven wickets for 30 runs. In this one, Sri Lankan batting was highlighted by Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas was the star in their bowling effort.
Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first. Their entire batting card was dominated by their captain Jayasuriya. He opened the batting and batted till the 49th over scoring a brilliant, aggressive 189 off 161 balls with 21 fours and four sixes. His domination in the partnerships showed his impact on that day. He added 166 runs in 20 overs with Russell Arnold as Arnold contributed only 30-odd. Once Jayasuriya passed 100, his last 89 runs came off just 43 balls and when he gave hope of scoring the first-ever double century in ODI cricket he was dismissed in the first ball of the 49th over as he was stumped by wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya off the bowling of Sourav Ganguly. Sri Lanka posted a daunting 299/5 in their quota of overs.
India still hoped for a good batting show like their opponents with Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh as their top three. They also had Vinod Kambli and Robin Singh to provide support. However, once Vaas picked up Ganguly and Tendulkar within the first five overs it was always going to be an uphill task for the Indians. What followed was one of the biggest collapses in ODI history as India kept losing wickets in a heap. They lost Yuvraj and Kambli to Vaas in his next two overs. Hemang Badani and Robin Singh could add 11 runs in the fifth wicket but Badani was dismissed by Nuwan Zoysa and then Murali started his magic.
For India, only Robin Singh reached double-figure with 11. Murali picked up three wickets for six runs and Vaas returned to pick his fifth wicket and closed the Indian innings for a paltry 54 runs, their lowest ODI total till date. The final analysis for Vaas was 9.3-1-14-5.
The victory margin of 245 runs is still highest for Sri Lanka and currently placed at number 10 in the overall list.
Video: India all out for 54
