Remembering the spell – Vaas blows away Zimbabwe

In the history of ODI cricket, only one bowler has taken eight wickets in a single innings. On 8th December 2001, Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas became the first and only ODI bowler to achieve this feat. Delivering an astonishing spell of 8/19 in eight overs, the left-arm bowler created a world record which stands till date. Zimbabwe collapsed to 38 all out which Sri Lanka overhauled in just 26 balls making it the shortest completed ODI game.

8th Dec: #OnThisDay in 2001; shortest ODI played b/w ZIM & SL. (Zim 38 in 15.4, SL 40/1 in 4.2) C Vaas took 8/19, WR. pic.twitter.com/InjcoIZ3F4

— Faizan Lakhani (@faizanlakhani) December 7, 2014

The opening encounter of the LG Abans Triangular Series was played at Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo. The home team won the toss and chose to make the most of the morning conditions on a helpful track.

Vaas did not waste even a single ball before getting into his groove. He trapped Dion Ebrahim in front of the stumps on the first ball itself. The left-arm bowler then accounted for the Flower brothers in his third over.

Becoming the first Sri Lankan bowler to claim an ODI hat-trick, Vaas dismissed three more Zimbabweans in his sixth over. With two more wickets, he became the first bowler to take eight wickets in an ODI innings. He had a tremendous opportunity to take all ten until Muttiah Muralitharan showed up and wrapped up the innings with two wickets in four balls. Vaas finished with the world record bowling analysis of 8-3-19-8.

Zimbabwe ended up with only 38 runs in their 15.4 overs. Sri Lanka needed only 4.3 overs to finish the game.