When India were all out for 54

Robin Singh with a score of 11 was the only Indian to reach double figures

Almost 15 years ago, India and Sri Lanka met in the final of Coca-Cola Cup tri-series held in Sharjah, with the third team being Zimbabwe. The two sides were captained by two prolific and aggressive left-handed batsmen of the time - Sourav Ganguly and Sanath Jayasuriya. The Sri Lankan won the toss and opted to bat first.

Jayasuriya started off in his usual attacking mode and Sri Lanka reached the 100-run mark in the 21st over despite losing three wickets. The run rate then slowed down and at the end of 28th over, Sri Lanka were 116-4 with Russel Arnold at the crease with well-set Jayasuria. Things were looking good for India till then, but things changed dramatically after that.

It was the start of an offensive which lasted till the very last ball of the Sri Lankan innings, which also broke many ODI records at that time. Jayasuriya reached his century off 118 balls and scored 89 runs in the next 43 balls he faced. By the time the Sri Lankan skipper fell in the 49th over, Sri Lanka had resurrected their innings by some way and set India a target of 300. Sunil Joshi was the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of 9-2-33-1 while Venkatesh Prasad got smashed for 73 runs in his 7 overs.

Sunil Joshi was the pick of the bowlers for India and managed to keep even Jayasuriya quiet

It was definitely a massacre of Indian bowling, but what lay ahead was even more brutal. Led by Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka’s bowlers demolished the much-hyped Indian batting line-up in an unprecedented manner. India lost their captain Sourav Ganguly playing a straight slog while his opening partner Sachin Tendulkar could not stay much longer as he was dismissed after handing a return catch to the bowler’s hands.

When India lost Yuvraj and Vinod Kambli, they were 19-4 in the 9th over with all four wickets claimed by Vaas. Next to go was Hemang Badani who tried to take on Nuwan Zoysa’s persistent short-ball strategy followed by Vijay Dahiya whose stumps were shattered by a sharp off-spinner from Muralitharan. Robin Singh, who was the only to get into double figures, also fell to the off-spinner after trying to cut.

Sunil Joshi paid the price for a lack of understanding with Ajit Agarkar who was at the non-striker’s end and India were now 49-8 with Agarkar facing Muralitharan. The first ball of the 24th over kissed the off-stump and India had just reached 50 with a single wicket left to fall. The negligible resistance by Zaheer and Prasad could stop the inevitable for only 13 more deliveries as Vaas returned to dismiss Zaheer and hand India a heavy defeat of 245 runs.

The scorecard Indian fans would like to forget

Wisden Cricket remembers the match in following words: “Sri Lanka completed the most crushing victory in any one-day international after bowling out India in 26.3 overs. With conditions less humid than before, Jayasuriya was the first captain to choose to bat since Ganguly in the opening game. He backed his judgment with the third-highest score in one-day internationals: 189 from 161 balls, with 21 fours and four sixes, five runs fewer Saeed Anwar's 194 against India in 1996-97, and level with Viv Richards's unbeaten 189 at Manchester in 1984.”

The match also threw up some interesting numbers, mainly records at that time. Here is a look at them:

54 – India’s total in this match, which was (and still is) their lowest ever in all ODIs beating the 63 against Australia at Sydney in 1981. The total was also the third lowest in the game's history after the 43 by Pakistan vs West Indies in 1993 and 45 by Canada vs England in 1979 at that time. It was also the lowest total at Sharjah for any team with the previous lowest being 55 by Sri Lanka vs West Indies in 1986.

245 – runs by which Sri Lanka's defeated India. It was the largest ever win (by runs) in ODI history. Earlier, Pakistan’s 233 runs victory against Bangladesh in the 1999 Asia Cup was the biggest win by runs. India's previous worst ever defeat was against England in 1975 World Cup when India scored 122 runs for 3 wickets chasing 335. India thus had two defeats in excess of 200 runs and became the only other team after Kenya to do so at the time.

189 – runs scored by Jayasuriya, the joint 2nd highest individual score by a batsman in ODIs after Saeed Anwar's 194 against India at Chennai in 1997 and West Indian Viv Richards' 189* against England at Manchester in 1984. Sanath Jayasuriya won his sixth Man of the Match award against India and the 23rd overall after this match.
21 – number of fours Jayasuriya struck in the match which were the joint second highest by a batsman in a single innings along with Viv Richards and Brian Lara. Saeed Anwar with 22 fours in his 194 vs India held the record for most fours in a single ODI innings.
110 – runs scored by Jayasuriya in boundaries, joint third most for any batsman in ODIs. Jayasuriya also became only the 2nd batsman after Richards to score 100 plus runs in boundaries two times in his career.

166 – runs added for the 5th wicket in 121 balls by Jayasuriya & Arnold, which was a new record for Sri Lanka for this wicket against any team. It was also the highest 5th wicket partnership for any team against India.

63.2 – % of Sri Lankan runs were scored by Jayasuriya, the 4th highest in an ODI match for any batsman with Vivian Richards’ topping the list with 69 %.