Silver Jubilee Independence Cup, 1997-98

Bangladesh's second official limited-overs international tournament - the first was the Asia Cup, nine years earlier - was held as a slightly belated celebration of 25 years' independence. The guests of honour were their neighbours, India and Pakistan, who played most of the cricket. There were only three qualifying matches to establish who would contest the best-of-three finals, and Bangladesh were unable to stage an upset in either of their two games.

India won both their preliminaries, and went on to beat Pakistan 2-1 in the finals. It was a satisfying return to captaincy for Mohammad Azharuddin, who had just regained the job he had lost to Sachin Tendulkar in August 1996. But it was also a satisfying return to from for Tendulkar. Both scored more than 250 runs. The leading run-scorer of the tournament, however, was Saeed Anwar of Pakistan, who made 315 in his five innings, culminating with 140 in climactic final. He and Ijaz Ahmed shared a world record third-wicket stand of 230, only to see India surge to the highest total ever made to win a one-day international batting second. Pakistan also had the leading wicket-taker in off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.

Bangladesh put up a decent fight in their opening game against India, but were completely outclassed by Pakistan. And there was a persistent problem with the venue, the National Stadium in Dhaka; five of the six matches had to be shortened because of fog.

Note: Matches in this section were not first-class.

Match reports for

1st Match: Bangladesh v India at Dhaka, Jan 10, 1998
Report | Scorecard

2nd Match: India v Pakistan at Dhaka, Jan 11, 1998
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3rd Match: Bangladesh v Pakistan at Dhaka, Jan 12, 1998
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1st Final: India v Pakistan at Dhaka, Jan 14, 1998
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2nd Final: India v Pakistan at Dhaka, Jan 16, 1998
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3rd Final: India v Pakistan at Dhaka, Jan 18, 1998
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