It was the 2nd semi-final of the Austral-Asia Cup between Pakistan and New Zealand at the iconic stadium of Sharjah. The Kiwis won the toss and made a very bad decision of putting Pakistan into bat first.
In the scorching heat of Sharjah, Aamir Sohail and Inzamam-ul-Haq smacked the Kiwi bowlers to every part of the ground. Sohail and Anwar were involved in a 57-run opening partnership before Inzamam-ul-Haq joined in to create the then world record of the highest partnership in ODIs for any wicket.
They added 263 runs for the second wicket with Aamir getting 134 and Inzamam 137. Interestingly, there were no sixes hit by the two centurions and the two sixes in Pakistan innings were smacked by Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram as they shared a single maximum each.
Inzamam scored at a strike rate of 106 and gathered 15 fours in his match-winning knock. Sohail on the other hand hit 13 fours and they both took Pakistan to a mammoth total of 328/2 in 50 overs.
DJ Nash of New Zealand went for 60 runs in his 9 overs whereas GR Larsen conceded 71 runs in his 10 overs without taking a wicket. C Pringle was the most successful bowler as he took the wicket of Aamir Sohail and conceded just 57 runs in his 10 overs.
In reply, the target of 328 runs was quite achievable as the Pakistan bowling line up had a few inexperienced bowlers. Apart from Wasim Akram, Aaqib Javed, Ata-ur-Rehman and Akram Raza were the main strike bowlers of Pakistan.
The Kiwis lost their first wicket on 19 when BR Hartland was caught behind by Rashid Latif off Akram's bowling. A 133-run partnership between AC Parore (82) and SA Thompson (62) could not save the Kiwis as they eventually got to 267-7 in their 50 overs.
Pakistan won the match by 62 runs whilst Wasim Akram and Saleem Malik took 2 wickets each. Inzamam-ul-Haq was awarded man of the match for his outstanding 137.
