da marjack bet： It was the 1740th ODI in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta29-Jul-2001It was the 1740th ODI in cricket history.It was India’s 473rd and Sri Lanka’s 359th match.It was the 68th match between these two sides. The record now reads :India 35, Sri Lanka 28, abandoned 5.Umpires Asoka de Silva and Peter Manuel were officiating in their 10thand 35th match respectively.Saurav Ganguly was missing a ODI for the third time in his careerafter being suspended by ICC match referee. He could not play againstAustralia at Kochi on April 1,1998 as he had been suspended by SouthAfrican match referee Peter Vander Merwe for showing dissent whengiven out by umpire David Shepherd in India’s first innings atBangalore in 1997-98. Ganguly was also handed over a one-matchsuspension by Australian match referee Barry Jarman for excessiveappealing in the Kanpur ODI against Zimbabwe on December11,2000.Ganguly thus,could not appear in the following match at Rajkoton December 14,2000. Ganguly was also captaining India at that time.He thus achieved the dubious distinction to become first captain to besuspended for a match on two separate occasions.Rahul Dravid was leading India for the second time in his career. Hehas now led India to victories in both the matches he has captained,the other occasion being the Rajkot one-dayer against Zimbabwe lastyear.Sri Lanka’s total (183) was its lowest in a completed innings againstIndia in Sri Lanka. The previous lowest was 211 at this same ground onJuly 25,1993.Sri Lanka’s total was the lowest ever total in ODI history to includea century stand for the opening wicket. The previous lowest was 189 byAustralia against South Africa at Melbourne on December 9,1993 withMark Taylor and Michael Slater putting on 105. The following tablelists lowest such totals :
Total
For
Vs
Venue
Date
Partnership- Batsmen
183
Sri Lanka
India
Colombo RPS
28-07-2001
103- Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana
189
Australia
South Africa
Melbourne
09-12-1993
105- Mark Taylor & Michael Slater
190
Australia
West Indies
Sydney
18-01-1980
103- Rick McCosker & Julian Weiner
194
England
West Indies
Lord’s
23-06-1979
129- Mike Brearley & Geoff Boycott
196
England
Australia
Sydney
06-12-1994
100- Mike Atherton & Alec Stewart
198
South Africa
Pakistan
Durban
09-02-1993
101- Andrew Hudson & Kepler Wessels
Note : Only completed innings have been taken intoconsideration
When Amay Khurasiya and Virender Shewag opened the Indian innings itwas the fourth opening combination for India in this tournament andfifth in last five matches. India opened with Ganguly and Tendulkar inthe final of Coca Cola Cup at Harare on July 7,2001. With injuredTendulkar out of the team,Yuvraj Singh and Ganguly opened the inningsin India’s first league match in this tournament against New Zealandon July 20. Ganguly then chose to bat in the middle order in the nextmatch against Sri Lanka on July 22 and Amay Khurasiya and Yuvrajopened the innings. When India played against New Zealand on July 26,Ganguly decided to return to his regular position and opened theinnings with Virender Shewag making it five opening combinations infive matches !! .However this is not an Indian record. India playedwith different opening combinations in seven consecutive matches fromJanuary 18,1981 to June 2,1982 and from October 3,1984 to December27,1984.The wicket of Rahul Dravid was 200th for Chaminda Vaas in ODIs. He wasappearing in his 163rd match. Vaas became third Sri Lankan afterMuttiah Muralitharan (246 wickets) and Sanath Jayasuriya (202 wickets)and 15th bowler overall to do so. Incidentally he became only thethird left arm bowler in ODIs to reach this milestone after PakistaniWasim Akram (440) and fellow teammate Sanath Jayasuriya (202).VVS Laxman was winning his maiden MoM award in his 24th match.