Nidahas Trophy: The reasons why this tournament is so special for the Indian cricket fans

Nidahas Trophy
Nidahas Trophy will begin from tomorrow. Image Source: twitter

XtraTime Web Desk: Rohit Sharma led young Indian side is ready to face the hosts Sri Lanka in the first match of the tri-nation Nidahas Trophy. Though a very few people knows that this tournament has a rich history itself. It was first played in 1998 which involved Sri Lanka, India and New Zealand but t was an ODI tri-series that time. It was held to mark 50 years of Sri Lankan independence. Now after 20 long years, the tri-nation series is back again but in T20 format and this time the teams are  Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.

Here we will talk about why this trophy was so special for the Indians:

#Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly’s epic world record

The Men in Blue this tournament in their last outing by beating the hosts by six runs. India’s star opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly shared a partnership of 252 runs for the first wicket, which was a world record during that time. The two break their own record three years later against Kenya where they shared 258 runs for the first wicket.

#Weather god helped India to reach the final

In the tri-nation tournament five matches were unfortunately called off due to heavy rain or bad weather conditions. In four priliminary matches the hosts won three games and their neighboring nation India just won one but despite of that they reached the final as all four matches of New Zealand were washed out.

#The big final between Sri Lanka and India

In the big final the visitors posted a mammoth of a total of 307 runs for 6 wickets thanks to a brilliant batting from Sourav Ganguly (109) and Sachin (128). In reply the Lankans gave their best but fell short of six runs. Aravinda de Silva was the top scorer for the hosts as he hit 105 runs from just 94 deliveries. From India’s perspectives Ajit Garakar took four wickets for 53 runs.