The Coca-Cola Cup was a tri-nation

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

tournament played in

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital ...

in 1998. This was the first cricket tournament in Sharjah to be sponsored by

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...

and was played under the aegis of the ''Cricketers Benefit Fund Series''. The

Round Robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

format was followed with each team playing the other two teams twice each. All matches were

day and night Day and Night and its variants may refer to: Books *''Day and Night'', poems 1924-1934 by New Zealand poet Ursula Bethell *''Day and Night'', children's book by Teddy Newton based on Pixar's '' Day & Night'' *''Day and Night'', children's book by ...

games and the tournament featured

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

cricket teams. This tournament was the first one in ten years which was held in Sharjah that

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

was not a part of. 24,000 spectators witnessed the final, a record turnout for a match at

Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium The Sharjah Cricket Stadium ( ar, ملعب الشارقة للكريكيت) is in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It holds the record for the most ODIs hosted in a venue with 240 ODIs up to December 2019. It was originally constructed in t ...

, where all the matches were played. India won the tournament after losing all their league games against Australia in a reversal of what happened during the ''Pepsi Cup'' (sponsored by Coke's competitor

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi wa ...

) in India just preceding this tournament, where Australia lost all their league ties to India but beat India in the finals to claim the title. Australia won all their league matches and qualified for the final, while both India and New Zealand had won a game each, which meant that the second finalist was chosen based on a better

net run rate Net run rate (NRR) is a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and/or performance in cricket. It is the most commonly used method of ranking teams with equal points in limited overs league competitions, similar to goal difference in foo ...

. Winners India took home US$40,000 in prize money, while Australia got US$30,000 for being runners up and third place New Zealand got US$15,000.

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

won the man of the tournament award and an

Opel Astra The Opel Astra is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) developed and produced by the German automaker Opel since 1991, currently at its sixth generation. It was first launched in September 1991 as a direct replacement to the Opel Kadett. ...

that went with the award, apart from winning other awards for most sixes and fastest fifty.

Damien Fleming Damien William Fleming (born 24 April 1970) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer who played for the Australian national cricket team and domestic cricket for Victoria. He played in 20 Tests and 88 ODIs from 1994 to 2001 and ...

and Ricky Ponting of Australia won the best bowler and best fielder awards respectively.

Group stage

Matches

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Final

Statistics

Most runs

Source:

Most wickets

Source:

Desert Storm

The tournament is best known for Sachin Tendulkar's back to back centuries against Australia (popularly known as 'Desert Storm') - the first helped India qualify for the final based on a better net run rate, and the second, in the finals which was played on Tendulkar's 25th birthday, helped India beat Australia to win the tournament. In lighter vein, Australian bowler

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australi ...

claimed that he had "nightmares" at the thought of bowling to Tendulkar after being dominated by him in the tournament. Tendulkar is credited for single-handedly winning the tournament for India. The last league match, where India played Australia needing to finish with a win or a better net run rate than New Zealand to qualify for the finals, was interrupted by a

sandstorm A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transpo ...

. Tendulkar's hundred following the storm in that match, which ensured that India qualified for the finals, came to be known as the "sandstorm innings" or "Desert Storm". The other Indian player who made a notable contribution in the tournament victory was

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain w ...

, whose century against New Zealand resulted in the only Indian victory in the league stage. For Australia,

Michael Bevan Michael Gwyl Bevan (born 8 May 1970) is a former Australian cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a slow left arm wrist-spin bowler. He has been credited for initiating the art of finishing matches. For several years, he was considered as ...

made a century in the last league game versus India, which resulted in an Australian victory but couldn't stop India from qualifying for the finals.

References

Notes

Records for most wickets in the tournament

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coca-Cola Cup, 1997 1998 in cricket International cricket competitions from 1997–98 to 2000 Coca-Cola