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Austral-Asia Cup

Austral-Asia Cup
Administrator Sharjah Cricket Association & International Cricket Council
Format One Day International
First tournament 1986
Last tournament 1994
Next tournament Cancelled
Tournament format Round-robin and Knock Out
Number of teams 7
Current champion  Pakistan (3rd title)
Most successful  Pakistan (3 titles)
Most runs India Mohammad Azharuddin (371)
Most wickets Pakistan Wasim Akram (18)

The Austral-Asia Cup was a One Day International cricket tournament held at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

The Arab cricketer, enthusiast and millionaire Abdur Rahman Bukhathir brought cricket initially to Sharjah in the mid-1980s and he masterminded a one day tournament involving Asia and Australasia's main cricketing nations - Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The first tournament was held at Sharjah in April 1986. India beat New Zealand and Pakistan beat Australia in the first round. Sri Lanka as Asia Cup winners got a bye to the semi-final, where they lost to India. New Zealand fielding a weakened team were bowled all out for 64 in the other semi. Abdul Qadir took 4-9 in 10 overs.

Pakistan and India met in the final in front of a capacity crowd of 20,000. India scored 245-7 with Sunil Gavaskar top-scoring with 92. Pakistan need 90 to win of the last ten overs. Javed Miandad held the innings together. In a tense finale, the last over bowled by Chetan Sharma began with 11 runs required. During the over two wickets fell and with Pakistan needing 4 runs and India one final wicket from the last ball. Javed hit the ball into the crowd for a six. Pakistan finished on 248-9 with Javed finishing on 116 not out. It is still considered as one of the most historic moments in one-day cricket history and Javed became a Pakistani national hero.

The second tournament took place in April 1990 at Sharjah with Bangladesh joining in. The six teams were split into 2 groups:

Group A: Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh


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