Sharjah Cricket Ground - Known for producing some memorable encounters

Sharjah Cricket Ground

Sharjah has proved to be a Mecca of hosting memorable matches for many years. It was successful in gathering interest among the spectators in the U.A.E.

From 1984 to 2003, it hosted 206 ODIs and regular tournaments involving three or four countries.

Unfortunately the popularity began to fade as match fixing allegations were made. BBC Cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said in 2001: “Sharjah has been pinpointed as being the centre of this activity [match fixing] and, again, this is entirely plausible. I would swear under oath that two of the dozen or so matches I have witnessed on that desert ground over the years were fixed”. After this many countries refused to accept tours for tournaments, which really dipped its popularity.

It was in 1984 that the 1^st ODI was played at Sharjah Cricket Ground between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Four nations Rothmans cup was next in line to be held at Sharjah and this tournament produced some extraordinary matches and exciting moments.

The first match of that tournament was itself a significant one when the rivals India and Pakistan faced off in their first Sharjah encounter. Imran Khan led the Pakistan bowling attack displaying an excellent fast bowling performance. He ripped the Indian batting order and took 6/14 in his 10 overs. India scored a paltry 125 on the board and it was up to the Pakistanis to finish the match in a style, but destiny had to take a new turn. Pakistan batsmen never looked comfortable in front of India’s world class bowling in the form of Kapil Dev, Madan Lal and Ravi Shastri. Wickets continued to fall in regular intervals and it was the tri-colored nation who emerged victorious in this epic match by 38 runs.

The Austral-Asia cup final became one of the greatest matches of all time when Javed Miandad lofted a Chetan Sharma full toss into the stands for a last ball six finish. Pakistan needed 4 runs from the last ball with 1 wicket in hand but the centurion never missed the opportunity of hitting a six. It is said that the ball “slipped from the hands of Chetan Sharma”, but that became a memorable delivery for all Pakistan cricket fans. This also made cricket even more famous than it was those days.

1989 and 1990 were the years when a young emerging fast bowler wrote his name in the record books.

Wasim Akram took hat tricks against West Indies and Australia. That was the 4^th and 5^th time respectively of an instance of hat tricks in ODI cricket.

In 1990 Wasim Akram scripted his name into the elite list by finishing the Australian innings with a hat trick. That was one of the best hat tricks ever seen as all the three batsmen were clean bowled. Wasim Akram also had an awesome time with the bat as he scored 49 off just 35 balls.

In the final of Wills Trophy, 1991, Pakistan emerged victorious with the help of Aaquib Javed who dismissed Ravi Shastri, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar in successive deliveries. He finished the innings with figures of 7/37.

The year 1998 will be forever remembered for Sachin Tendulkar’s memorable innings. The little master was at the peak of his career and scored 4 centuries in 10 innings at Sharjah.

His 143 and 134 against Australia came in successive matches. During his innings he dismissed Australian bowlers, especially Shane Warne, to all parts of the ground and contributed a lot in India’s victory.

The final match against Zimbabwe was also a special one as Sachin Tendulkar thrashed Zimbabwean bowling attack especially, the spirited Henry Olonga. The match was won by India by 10 wickets as Zimbabweans failed to fathom out the way of dismissing Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.

On 15^th October 1999, the overwhelming crowd witnessed a memorable tie at Sharjah. Sri Lanka was cruising along at 157/1 with just 40 odd runs remaining for victory. However, Abdul Razzaq’s 5 wickets turned the game around as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 196.

The 2000 Coca Cola Cup Champions Trophy Final witnessed a world class batting display by the then Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuria. He proved to be a one man army as he scored 189 runs out of the 299 scored by Sri Lanka. A lackluster Indian batting display saw India being bowled out for just 54 runs and Sri Lanka won the trophy by a convincing margin of 245 runs.

Sharjah’s popularity has undoubtedly decreased than what it was a decade ago. Nowadays, only bilateral tournaments are held there but those tri-series tournaments will always be missed.