Hashan Tillakaratne scores his century in the last over of the run chase, against West Indies in Sharjah on 16 Oct. 1995[/caption]
Sharjah shot to the limelight in 1986, when Pakistan needed four to win off one ball, and Javed Miandad swung Chetan Sharma off his hips and into the pages of folklore.
“For most of the next two decades, India and Pakistan simply couldn’t stop meeting in Sharjah, with Bollywood stars (and even the infamous gangster Dawood Ibrahim) thronging the VIP gallery,” wrote Mohammad Isam to Cricinfo on 11 May 2020.
“In 1995, Hashan Tillakaratne nearly pulled off a Miandad moment of his own, after scoring a valiant hundred that got Sri Lanka to the brink of victory in a record chase of 334 against West Indies,” he adds in the said write-up.
Tillakaratne brought the game down to the wire. Sri Lanka needed highly possible eight runs in the final over. But they had only one wicket: Pramodya Wickramasinghe was batting at the other end with Tillakaratne. Five runs, four balls, one wicket ... Wickramasinghe takes a cheeky single off the first ball, bowled by right-arm fast-bowler Andersen Cummins. Then Tillakaratne took two runs which took him to 100 with Sri Lanka requiring to score five runs in four balls. Cummins bowled the third delivery as a full-toss on the leg side. Tillakaratne heaves it over the square-leg area.
For a moment, the shot looked to be a huge six and the match had been won by Sri Lanka, by one wicket with three balls to spare! In fact Tony Greigh, who was soon to be a household name in Sri Lanka, shouted in joy of a Sri Lankan victory over the TV commentary.
But it was not to be as the West Indies opening batsman Stuart Williams emerged from nowhere to pluck a catch out of thin air near deep square-leg just over the boundary rope. And the game was won by the West Indies by four runs.
“A West Indies victory looked a formality when they reduced Sri Lanka to 103 for five, but Tillakaratne hadn’t had his say yet,” remembered Isam.
Champion mentality created Yet for the Sri Lankans, the game was to be a significant milestone in their progress curve. Also, it was the time when the general public of the country started following the national team as a truly "national" team. Within the Sri Lanka playing ranks, the victory-hungry combination was being finalised. They would go on to win the tri-nations trophy in a couple of days' time. It was the very first moment where Sri Lanka tasted victory of such magnitude away from their shores. And also the momentum that was picked from then, that came with the strong belief that you too can win at the highest international level if you play really hard, was going to continue to the very next tri-series held in Australia too. The series too involved the same Windies side. Sri Lanka knocked out the Windies and reached the best-of-three finals only to lose a fierce battle with uncompromising belligerence against the Aussies. It was the same bunch of Lankans who claimed the World Cup in March the next year beating the same Australian outfit to pen yet another fairytale chapter in the history books of world cricket.Scores:
Singer Champions Trophy 5th Match in Sharjah on 16 October 1995:
West Indies (won toss) 333/7 in 50 overs (Brian Lara 169 in 129 balls, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul 62 n.o. in 45; Pramodya Wickramasinghe 2/58, Chandika Hathurusingha 2/67)
Sri Lanka 329 all out in 49.3 overs (Hashan Tillakaratne 100 in 106, Roshan Mahanama 76, Chandika Hathurusingha 45, Romesh Kaluwitharana 31, Kumar Dharmasena 24; Anderson Cummins 2/61, Ottis Gibson 2/74)
Result: West Indies won by four runs
ODI No.: 1,010
Umpires: Nigel Plews and Steve Dunne
Referee: Raman Subba Row
# Sri Lanka went on to win the tri-nation championship, which also involved Pakistan, in that series beating the same opposition West Indies by 50 runs in the final on 20 October 1995.
# Remember in six months’ time, they were going to win the World Cup in the format.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJeEC_ygCd8