Tendulkar's Desert Storm: 143 in a Sharjah sandstorm
Michael Bevan's unbeaten century took Australia to 284 in Sharjah, and a sandstorm forced the ground to stop play mid-innings. Sachin Tendulkar answered with 143, taking the target apart until fatigue ended his innings and left India 26 runs short on a revised target.
The Coca-Cola Cup in Sharjah
Australia, India and New Zealand played a triangular one-day series in Sharjah in April 1998, on a small ground in the desert that had become one of the most familiar venues in world cricket. On 22 April, Australia won the toss and batted first against India, and what followed became the first half of a two-match sequence that is still talked about as one of the great individual performances against the odds in one-day cricket, remembered collectively as Sachin Tendulkar's Desert Storm innings.
Bevan builds a total
Mark Waugh made 81 and Ricky Ponting 31, but the innings that took Australia to a big total belonged to Michael Bevan, who finished unbeaten on 101 from 103 balls. Adam Gilchrist made a brisk 11 at the top, and Darren Lehmann added 26 down the order, while Steve Waugh was run out by Sachin Tendulkar himself for 10. Australia reached 284 for 7 from their 50 overs, Venkatesh Prasad the most economical of India's bowlers with 2 for 41 from his 8 overs.
The innings was really two separate stories stitched together by Bevan. Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist put on 17 for the first wicket before Gilchrist fell, and Waugh and Ricky Ponting added 67 more before Ponting was out for 31. Damien Martyn lasted only three balls, out for 1 as the score moved from 84 to 87, and it was there that Bevan joined Waugh and the innings changed shape. The pair added 90 for the fourth wicket before Waugh, having batted almost the entire innings from the top of the order, was finally out for 81 with the score on 177. From there Bevan simply kept finding partners: 20 more with Steve Waugh, 53 with Darren Lehmann, and 21 with Tom Moody, before he and Shane Warne saw the innings home to 284.
Eight bowlers and no answer
India used eight bowlers in an attempt to break the innings up, and none of them found a lasting answer to Bevan. Venkatesh Prasad and Harvinder Singh shared the new ball, Prasad finishing with 2 for 41 from his 8 overs and Harvinder 1 for 44 from 7. Anil Kumble took 1 for 41 from his full ten overs, and Harbhajan Singh, still early in his career, went for 63 from 8 overs without much luck. Sourav Ganguly, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and VVS Laxman were all tried as part-time options, conceding freely without a breakthrough between them, and even Sachin Tendulkar was given five overs with the ball, returning 1 for 27, in addition to the run-out of Steve Waugh he had already made in the field earlier in the innings. It meant that by the time India came out to chase, every bowler in the side had already had a hand in conceding runs to Bevan, and the total facing them felt even larger for it.
The storm hits the ground
Partway through Australia's innings a sandstorm swept across the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, cutting visibility and forcing the players off the field while the ground was engulfed in a wall of dust, an image that became as famous as anything that happened with bat or ball that night. Play resumed once the storm passed, and the interruption meant India's target would later be set using a revised calculation rather than the original 285 to win.
Tendulkar takes on Warne
Chasing a total that had grown even more demanding because of the revised target, Sourav Ganguly fell early, lbw for 17 with the score on 38, and Tendulkar took charge from the other end. He took the attack straight to Shane Warne, at the time considered the best bowler in the world, hitting him for six over the top more than once in a spell that shifted the balance of the innings and is still replayed as one of the definitive passages of Tendulkar's career. He reached his century well inside even time, driving and pulling through a Sharjah evening that had grown hot and heavy after the storm.
The innings that followed him in
Nayan Mongia supported Tendulkar with 35, adding 69 for the second wicket, before he was caught by Mark Waugh with the score on 107. Mohammad Azharuddin made 14 and Ajay Jadeja fell for 1 soon after, but Tendulkar kept going, visibly exhausted by the heat and the storm-thickened air, until he was finally caught by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist for 143 from 131 balls, with 9 fours and 5 sixes, at 242, with India still needing more than they could get.
Twenty-six runs short
VVS Laxman was unbeaten on 23 and Hrishikesh Kanitkar unbeaten on 5 at the end, but with Tendulkar gone there was not enough left in the innings to close the gap. India finished on 250 for 5, 26 runs short of the target as revised for the interruption, and Australia won the match. It was, even in defeat, an innings that changed how the contest was remembered: Australia had won, but the match went down in cricket history as Tendulkar's.
The birthday innings two days later
Two days later, on 24 April, his 25th birthday, Tendulkar made another century, 134, in the final of the same tournament, taking India to the title. The pair of innings, four days apart at the same ground against the same opponent, are the reason the whole sequence is remembered as the Desert Storm, and Tendulkar was named man of the match for this game for his 143 despite India's loss.
The full scorecard for this match, innings by innings, is on this page, and both sides can be followed further on the Australia and India team pages. In The Chase you can take India into a chase of your own and see whether you can finish what Tendulkar started at Sharjah.
Sources
- CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and bowling figures on this page
- ESPNcricinfo: Coca-Cola Cup 1997/98, Australia v India, 6th match, Sharjah, scorecard and report
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1999: the Coca-Cola Cup in Sharjah