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Bombay mix
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 1, 2002
There have been 11 previous one-day matches at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. India have contested ten of these, winning six but losing four, including two out of their three World Cup encounters - against England in 1987, and against Australia in 1996.
The other match at the Wankhede was a Hero Cup game between West Indies and Sri Lanka in 1993-94. West Indies won by 46 runs, despite a century from Sri Lanka's Hashan Tillekeratne.
West Indies had Winston Benjamin to thank for that win. His figures of 5 for 22 in ten overs are the best by any bowler on the ground. Damien Fleming took 5 for 36 for Australia v India in the 1996 World Cup.
Manoj Prabhakar recorded India's best figures here - 4 for 19 against pre-Test-era Zimbabwe in the 1987 World Cup. Anil Kumble took 4 for 25 against South Africa in the Titan Cup final in 1996-97, but the record wicket-taker on the ground is Venkatesh Prasad, with 15 wickets in six matches, at an average of 14.86.
It has been a good toss to lose. Sides have chosen to bat first in seven of the 11 matches, including each of the last five occasions, but this has resulted in just three victories. And only India - against West Indies in 1994-95 - have won after choosing to field first. In all, the team batting first has won six times, while the team batting second has won five.
No team has exceeded India's total of 299 for 4, in the Wankhede's inaugural one-day innings, against Sri Lanka in 1986-87. Mohammad Azharuddin top-scored with 108 not out. In their reply, Sri Lanka themselves managed the ground's second-highest total of 289 for 7. On five occasions teams have been bowled out for less than 200, the lowest being Bangladesh's 115 in 1997-98.
Shockingly, Sachin Tendulkar opened his account at the Wankhede with a fourth-ball duck (his opening partner Manoj Prabhakar fell first ball), against West Indies in 1994-95. But inevitably he has made amends. In five matches since then he has scored a record 306 runs at an average of 51.00, with two fifties and a century (114 v South Africa, in the Mohinder Amarnath benefit match in 1996-97). Mohammad Azharuddin managed 302 from eight matches, at 50.33.
Sanath Jayasuriya's spanking 151 not out, off 120 balls in May 1997, is the highest score here. There have been six centuries in all, two apiece for India and Sri Lanka, one for Australia (Mark Waugh, 126 in the 1996 World Cup), and one for England - Graham Gooch's famous sweep-filled 115 in the 1987 World Cup semi-final.
Andrew Miller is on the staff of Wisden.com
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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