Pakistan reserved their best show for the final and walked away with the Sharjah Cup. Posting a mammoth 295 for six, through a scintillating century from Yousuf Youhana and two sparkling fifties from Imran Nazir and Younis Khan. Pakistan bowled out Sri Lanka for a paltry 78 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Pakistan pacers Shoaib Akhtar (3 for 11) Waqar Younis (3 for 33) and Wasim Akram (2 for 33) virtually ripped apart the seemingly powerful Sri Lankan batting. In front of a packed stadium, despite being a working day, Pakistan registered a convincing 217-run victory to avenge their two successive earlier defeats to Sri Lanka in this tournament and take the winner’s cheque of $120,000 (Dh440,760). Sri Lanka, who did well throughout the tournament had to be satisfied with $80,000 for the second place on a day where nothing went right for them right from the toss. They also lost the services of their star bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, who broke his collar bone while fielding in the 11th over.
Other important events:
1888 The English Football League is founded at the Royal Hotel, Manchester.
1895 China opens seven new ports and cedes Formosa (Taiwan), Port Arthur and the Liao Tung Peninsula to Japan.
1941 Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany during the Second World War.
1942 French General Henri Giraud escapes from Konigstein Castle near Dresden, Germany.
1946 Last French troops leave Syria, which becomes independent.
1961 Cuba is invaded at the Bay of Pigs by a US-supported invasion force.
1964 American aviator Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to complete a solo aeroplane flight around the world.
1969 Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek is deposed.
1971 Egypt, Syria and Libya sign agreement to confederate.
1975 Phnom Penh falls to communist insurgents, ending Cambodia’s five-year war.
1983 India enters space age by launching SLV-3 rocket.
1989 A Warsaw court lifts a seven-year ban on Solidarity.
1992 Russian lawmakers refuse to approve arms control pact, setting up another confrontation with President Boris Yeltsin.
1993 President Turgut Ozal of Turkey dies of heart problems.
1999 Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigns after a vote of no confidence in parliament.
2002 Independence hero and former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao wins a thumping victory in East Timor’s first presidential election.
2004 Abdul Aziz Rantisi, Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas, is assassinated by the Israel military.
2007 A powerful remote-controlled bomb destroys a UN vehicle in Kandahar, killing four Nepalese guards and an Afghan driver.
2008 Kenya swears in a power-sharing government to soothe fury over a disputed election that plunged the east African country into bloody crisis.
2009 The International Cricket Council board announces that Pakistan is stripped of its hosting rights because of the “uncertainty surrounding Pakistan”.
2012 Space shuttle Discovery makes final flight to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Virginia.
2013 14 people are dead after a Texas fertiliser factory explodes in the United States.
2014 Qatar signs a deal to end a political crisis with other Gulf states.
2015 Iraqi government forces kills Saddam Hussain’s former deputy Ezzat Ebrahim Al Douri.
2016 An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 kills more than 233 people in Ecuador.
