CALCUTTA: India retained the Asia Cup defeating Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the final one day match here Jan 4.
Sri Lanka scored 204 [or nine wickets in 45 overs in the first half of the match.
India made 205 for three wickets in 42.1 overs.
A hard-hitting unbeaten $4 by Skipper Mohammed Azharuddin and some solid batting by Sanjay Manjrekar and Sachin Tendulkar enabled India to beat Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens grounds here.
India after winning the toss made Sri Lanka bat and restricted them to a modest 204 for nine in 45 overs mainly due to a brilliant hat trick by Kapil Dev.
The Indian batsmen were bogged down in the initial stages of their innings and only after Tendulkar (53) and Manjrekar (75 not Out) steadied the innings that Azharuddin provided the winning touch with his rollicking knock.
Azharuddin, rightly named the man of the match amidst thunderous applause from the 70,000 crowd at the Eden Gardens, faced only 39 balls during his 50 minutes stay at the wicket. He hit four boundaries and one six,
Sri Lankan Skipper Arjuna Ranatunga was declared the man of the series and was handed over the Rs 50,000 ayers ey west Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu,
Bassu also banded over the Noor Kaho trophy and special Vidiocoa trophy to Indian captain Azharaddin.
The Indians began the run chase on & slow note as they scored only 41 runs in the first 15 overs and also lost the wickets of both the openers, Ravi Shastri and Nayjot Sidhu.
At one stage around 20kh over the Indian innings the match looked like slipping out of India’s grip as the home team scored only 53 runs at the 20th overs mark as against 84 for two by Sri Lanka at the same stage.
But Manjrekar and Tendulkar slowly but steadily started to take India out of woods with singles and two.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 11, 1991
