5 Instances when India won a game by 1 run

Sri Lanka v India at Colombo, 25 July 1993

Mohammad Azharuddin lead by example

It was India’s tour of Sri Lanka in 1993 and the captains were Mohammad Azharuddin and Arjuna Ranatunga. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field first. India courtesy of 39 runs from Prabhakar and exactly 39 runs from the other opener, Navjot Singh Sidhu, laid a solid foundation. Azharuddin played a fantastic knock scoring 53 of 57 deliveries. With the help of 21 from Tendulkar and 27 from Kapil Dev, India reached a total of 212 which was very competitive in those days.

Sri Lankan openers put 46 runs on the board before they were both dismissed. However, opener Hathurusingha and middle-order batsman Arvinda de Silva put on a 115 run partnership to put Sri Lanka in the driving seat. After this partnership was broken, no batsman reached double figures except for the young Sanath Jayasuriya who made 17. Sri Lanka in the end required 6 to win with at last two overs to go and three wickets in hand.

A run out and a wicket to Javagal Srinath meant that Sri Lanka required two of the last over with one wicket in hand. Prabhakar who opened for India, closed for India as well. He bowled Wickramasinghe on the second ball and India won the game by 1 run. Azharuddin was declared man of the match for his half-century.