ON THIS DAY IN 1998: Most of the Indian cricket fans recognise Sachin Tendulkar for his batting expertise. But when given an opportunity to bowl, the legendary batter could demolish the opponents with mystic spin during the early phase of his illustrious career. Tendulkar, who holds the monumental record of 100 international centuries, has also fetched 154 wickets in 463 ODI appearances.
One of his best all-round performances came on January 14, 1998, when the Asian rivals– India squared off against Pakistan in the first final of the Silver Jubilee Independence Cup. It was a three-team ODI tournament, hosted by Bangladesh to celebrate the country’s 25 years of independence.
The participating teams played one game against each other during the league stage. While India won both of their matches, Pakistan secured their place in the finals by beating Bangladesh in a low-scoring affair. The winners of the tri-series would be decided through a three-match assignment.
Hosted at the Dhaka National Stadium, the opening final saw Pakistan win the toss and elect to bat first. They failed to make a desired start to the innings and ended up losing three wickets in just 95 runs. That’s when Tendulkar was brought into the attack. He ripped through the Pakistani middle-order and picked up three wickets in quick succession.
After sending off Ijaz Ahmed for 34 in the 36th over, Tendulkar got rid of Inzamam-ul-Haq, who contributed 33 runs to the scoresheet. His third wicket came in the 41st over when Tendulkar trapped Manzoor Akhtar for a stumping. The Master Blaster wrapped up the innings as the top-performing bowler for India, returning with figures of 3/45.
Tendulkar continued his red-hot form with the bat as well. He opened India’s innings with Sourav Ganguly and went all guns blazing from the very first over. The duo racked up a 159-run partnership, which had no doubt built the foundation for a successful chase. While Ganguly made 68 runs off 87 balls, Tendulkar missed the ton by just five runs.
Before losing his wicket to Shahid Afridi, Tendulkar whacked six boundaries and five maximums during his 78-ball innings.
Captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja did the remaining job. Both batters remained unbeaten till the end. Azharuddin scored a composed 30, while Jadeja gave him the proper support by holding the wicket at the other end. India ultimately reached the target in 37.1 overs to secure a dominant 8-wicket victory.
Tendulkar was named the Player of the Match for his impactful performance across departments. Pakistan bounced back well in the second final before India won the deciding game by three wickets to bag the tri-series.
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