Asia XI v Rest of the World XI
8th April 2000 Dhaka was played one of the most thrilling ODI matches.Asia XI defeated Rest of the World XI in the nail-bitter by solitary runs .Asia XI skipper Wasim Akram Home Page opted to bat first on the batting friendly Dhaka track. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly once again put on century run stand and guided Asia XI to set up mammoth total of 320 runs on the board.The little maestro scored brisk 80 off 77 balls with eleven hits to the fence on the other hand Sourav Ganguly scored run a ball 67 with three towering sixes. Saurav smashed Tufnell for three sixes first six over the mid-wicket and second one over the long-on and last one over the long-off.ROW in response lost wickets at regular intervals and were struggling at 196 for seven.But when the chips are down there is one man holding the fort , Michael Bevan ,the great finisher.He and Andrew Caddick brought ROW back in the match with 119 runs stand off 77 balls before Caddick was run out in the penultimate ball of the match.The southpaw played a gem of a knock smashing an unbeaten 185 runs off 132 balls studded with nineteen glorious fours and five shots outside the park.ROW were required an improbable target of twenty runs in last overs.
Wasim gave the ball to Abdur Razzaq, the first ball Caddick misses but managed to take a single, bye of first delivery. Bevan on strike five deliveries left 19 to get, Bevan, smashed one straight done the ground bisecting long on and long off for four, a flick of the wrist four again, fielder failed to reach and that’s four more the ploy seemed to backfired as Bevan hit three consecutive boundaries. Seven to win from two balls, Razzazq was under tremendous pressure, the crowd was buzzing, people were on their feet for the spectacular finish but what happened Caddick just ran himself out(direct hit from substitute fielder Robin Singh). Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka erupted with joy six off last ball but Bevan only managed to hit a boundary. Asia XI won the classic thriller by one run, but more importantly crowd would be more than blessed to witness one of the extraordinary ODI knocks.
