On this day, on 23rd September, saw the end of the inedible Sahara Cup played between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. The most interesting thing about it was that the series was played on neutral grounds of Canada. It is also known as the 1996 ‘Friendship Cup’ or the 1996 Sahara ‘Friendship Cup’ for sponsorship reasons. It was a One Day International cricket series that took place between 14–23 September 1996. The tournament was won by Pakistan, who won the series 3-2. This was the first edition of the annual event. The sides were captained by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Sultan of Swing, Wasim Akram. Cricketers like Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Vinod Kambli, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Saqlain Mushtaq, Moeen Khan, Shadab Kabeer, Mushtaq Ahmed represented their sides for a terrific competition. The first ODI was won by India by 8 wickets while Pakistan equaled the level in the second ODI. The 3rd and 4th saw a victory for India and Pakistan respectively but the series decider saw the triumph of the greens. Rahul Dravid was declared the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 222 runs in 5 matches and Anil Kumble bagged 12 wickets to seal the position of leading wicket-taker of the tournament.
1st ODI
Hurricane Fran had washed out the first weekend matches and the first encounter had to be shifted to Monday, which was again curtailed to 33 overs a side.
Pakistan 170/9 (33) | Saaed Anwar 46, J Srinath 3/23
India 173/2 (29.5) | Sachin Tendulkar 89*, Waqar Younis 1/30
India won by 8 wickets | Player of the Match Sachin Tendulkar .
2nd ODI
The match was about to play on 15th September but was shifted to 17th September due to rain.
India 264/6 (50) | Rahul Dravid 90, Saqlain Mushtaq 2/39
Pakistan 266/8 (49.5) | Saeed Anwar 80, J Srinath 2/53
Pakistan won by 2 wickets | Player of the Match Saleem Malik
3rd ODI
Back-to-back one day games were not uncommon in the 90s, but the Sahara Cup now had 3 matches on consecutive days.
India 191 all out | Rahul Dravid 46, Wasim Akram 4/35
Pakistan 136 all out | Moin Khan 42, Anil Kumble 4/12
India won by 55 runs | Player of the Match: Rahul Dravid
4th ODI
Pakistan 258/8 | Ijaz Ahmed 90, Anil Kumble 2/36
India 161 all out | Ajay Jadeja 47, Wasim Akram 2/11
Pakistan won by 97 runs | Player of the Match: Ijaz Ahmed
5th ODI
This was the decider where the ball wasn’t coming off to the bat well. And Pakistani leg spinner Mushtaq Ahmed picked up his first fifer to clinch the series in their favour.
Pakistan 213/9 | Aamir Sohail 44, Anil Kumble 3/47
India 161 all out | Sachin Tendulkar 23, Mushtaq Ahmed 5/36
Pakistan won by 52 runs | Player of the Match: Mushtaq Ahmed
Notables from the series:
Dravid and Mohammad Azharuddin put on a partnership of 161 runs in the second ODI- highest third wicket partnership for India in ODIs beating the previous best of 158 runs by Navjot Singh Sidhu and Mohinder Amarnath against New Zealand.
Both Azhar and Saleem Malik crossed 6000 runs in ODIs during the series.