OTD | Sri Lanka won the Singer Champions Trophy by beating West Indies in the final in 1995

On this day in 1995, Sri Lanka won the Singer Champions Trophy. The Asian side beat the West Indies by 50 runs to win the final. A great batting show by the Top 3 batters, especially from Aravinda De Silva, and a great bowling performance helped Sri Lanka to win the title. It gave them the confidence to show up in the big tournaments and eventually helped them to win the ODI World Cup months later in 1996.

Sri Lanka batted first and posted a great total of 273 runs on the board. Back in the mid-1990s, it was an above-par total, especially on a sluggish surface like the one in Sharjah. Sri Lankan openers knew it was not an easy surface to bat on. Hence, they started slowly but ensured to keep the scoreboard ticking. While Mahanam scored 66(103), Sanath Jayasuriya scored 57(82).

But it was the magical Mad Max Aravinda De Silva who made a huge impact on the Sri Lankan innings. While their openers put on a partnership of 111 runs, the run rate wasn’t highly impressive. De Silva played an aggressive knock and smashed a 35-ball fifty. Hashan Tillakaratne with his 32(30) helped SL to post a total of 273 runs on board.

For WI, Ottis Gibson claimed a 4-fer while Anderson Cummins and Hamish Anthony claimed 2 wickets respectively. Chasing 274, WI needed a fine start. However, the men in maroon kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. With pressure of the required run rate, WI lost 5 wickets after scoring 88 runs. 

The designated batters could not do their job. WI fell to a disastrous situation of 177/9. It was Ottis Gibson and Anthony whose cameos saved WI from an embarrassing loss. Despite that, they managed only 223 runs and lost by 50 runs. For SL, Muttiah Muralitharan claimed 3 wickets while Eric Upashantha and Kumar Dharmsena claimed 2 wickets each. De Silva won the POTM award for his aggressive knock.

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