# 1997 'Friendship' Cup

The 1997 'Friendship Cup' , also known as the 1997 Sahara 'Friendship Cup' for sponsorship reasons was a One Day International cricket series which took place between 13 and 21 September 1997. The tournament was held in Canada, which was seen as perfect neutral territory for India and Pakistan to play each other. The tournament was won by India 4–1. The matches were played in white clothing and a red ball was used.

## Teams

* Canada - warm-up match only
* India
* Pakistan

## Squads

| India | Pakistan |
| Sachin Tendulkar (C) Mohammad Azharuddin Rajesh Chauhan Rahul Dravid Sourav Ganguly Harvinder Singh Ajay Jadeja Vinod Kambli Saba Karim (Wk) Nilesh Kulkarni Abey Kuruvilla Debasis Mohanty Robin Singh | Rameez Raja (C) Aaqib Javed Azhar Mahmood Hasan Raza Inzamam-ul-Haq Kabir Khan Mohammad Akram Mohammad Hussain Moin Khan (Wk) Saeed Anwar Saleem Malik Saqlain Mushtaq Shahid Afridi Shahid Nazir |

## Warm-up match

* 11 September Scorecard
| Canada 171/6 (35 overs) | v | India 176/4 (34 overs) |
| George Codrington 101 (97) Debasis Mohanty 2/5 (5 overs) | | Robin Singh 57* (52) Barry Seebaran 3/23 (7 overs) |
* India won by 6 wickets Ajax Cricket Club, Ajax Umpires: Nizam Baksh, Colin Harvey and Ken Patel
* India won the toss and elected to field.
* The match was reduced to 35 overs per side due to rain.

## ODI series
### 1st ODI

* 13 September Scorecard
| India 208 (50 overs) | v | Pakistan 188 (44.2 overs) |
| Mohammad Azharuddin 52 (87) Saqlain Mushtaq 5/45 (10 overs) | | Saleem Malik 64 (87) Harvinder Singh 3/44 (8.2 overs) |
* India won by 20 runs Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Rudi Koertzen (SA) Player of the match: Ajay Jadeja (Ind)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to field.
* Pakistan innings limited to 49 overs due to their slow over rate.
* Harvinder Singh and Debashish Mohanty (Ind) made their ODI debuts.
* Mohammad Azharuddin equalled the record for most catches by an India fieldsman (4).

### 2nd ODI

* 14 September Scorecard
| Pakistan 116 (45 overs) | v | India 119/3 (34.4 overs) |
| Saleem Malik 36 (58) Debasis Mohanty 3/15 (7 overs) | | Sourav Ganguly 32 (86) Saqlain Mushtaq 1/24 (8 overs) |
* India won by 7 wickets Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Steve Randell (Aus) Player of the match: Sourav Ganguly (Ind)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.
* Crowd trouble and Inzamam-ul-Haq's (Pak) scuffle with the crowd delayed play by 40 minutes after 16th over of India's innings.

### 3rd ODI

* 17 September Scorecard
| Pakistan 169/3 (31.5 overs) | v | India |
| Saeed Anwar 74 (84) Sourav Ganguly 2/39 (7.5 overs) | | |
* No result Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (SA) and Steve Randell (Aus)
* India won the toss and elected to field.
* Rain reduced Pakistan innings to 31.5 overs and India's target was set to 141 runs in 25 overs by Parabola method.
* Subsequent rain led to abandoning of the match and called for a replay.

#### Replay

* 18 September Scorecard
| India 182/6 (50 overs) | v | Pakistan 148 (36.5 overs) |
| Mohammad Azharuddin 67 (110) Mohammad Akram 2/28 (10 overs) | | Shahid Afridi 44 (38) Sourav Ganguly 5/16 (10 overs) |
* India won by 34 runs Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (SA) and Steve Randell (Aus) Player of the match: Sourav Ganguly (Ind)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to field.

### 4th ODI

* 20 September Scorecard
| Pakistan 159/6 (28 overs) | v | India 162/3 (25.3 overs) |
| Azhar Mahmood 33* (24) Harvinder Singh 2/25 (5 overs) | | Sourav Ganguly 75* (75) Shahid Nazir 3/38 (6 overs) |
* India won by 7 wickets Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WI) and Steve Randell (Aus) Player of the match: Sourav Ganguly (Ind)
* India won the toss and elected to field.
* The match was reduced to 28 overs per side due to rain; India innings limited to 26 overs due to their slow over rate.

### 5th ODI

* 21 September Scorecard
| India 250/5 (50 overs) | v | Pakistan 251/5 (41.5 overs) |
| Sourav Ganguly 96 (136) Azhar Mahmood 2/27 (10 overs) | | Inzamam-ul-Haq 71* (86) Sourav Ganguly 2/33 (9 overs) |
* Pakistan won by 5 wickets Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (WI) and Steve Randell (Aus) Player of the match: Sourav Ganguly (Ind)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to field.
* Pakistan innings limited to 48 overs due to slow over rate.

## Statistics

| Most runs | Most runs | Most wickets | Most wickets |
| Sourav Ganguly | 222 | Sourav Ganguly | 15 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 197 | Harvinder Singh | 9 |
| Shahid Afridi | 145 | Saqlain Mushtaq | 8 |
| Saeed Anwar | 140 | Debasis Mohanty | 8 |
| Saleem Malik | 132 | Abey Kuruvilla | 7 |

## Spectator incident

During the 2nd ODI, spectator Shiv Kumar Thind, an Indian living in Toronto, used a megaphone to shout abuse at Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq. Thind likened Inzamam's physical size to that of several kinds of potato and Buddha (an old man). Inzamam took offense to this and proceeded to enter the crowd and challenge Thind. When Thind threw his megaphone at him, ul-Haq borrowed a cricket bat from a teammate and attempted to attack Thind with it. The event subsequently caused a 37-minute delay in the game and later resulted in both men filing charges of assault against one another. Thind and ul-Haq later withdrew the charges, although the Pakistan Cricket Board banned Inzamam for two matches.