Read the article of Australia vs England 5th Match Sharjah Cup 1987 - Sharjah Cup four-nation one-day international tournament of the 5th ODI match played between England and Australia at Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah in 09th April 1987.
Graham Gooch, Chris Broad, Phil DeFreitas and John Emburey heroes as England thrilling 11-run victory over Australia, despite a fighting innings from David Boon's 73 - Allan Border's 84 in the fifth match of a Sharjah Cup.
England scored 230-6 in 50 overs with top scorer by Graham Gooch struck 86 off 119-balls including 7-fours & a six.
Chris Broad scored 44 off 86-balls without a boundary, Neil Fairbrother cracked a 32 off 40-balls included 2-fours & a six, John Emburey 18 not out and David Capel 17.
Australia best bowler by Simon O'Donnell, Peter Taylor, Steve Waugh and Bruce Reid each took one-wickets.
Australia scored 219-9 in 50 overs with top scorer by Allan Border struck 84 off 104-balls including 5-fours.
David Boon scored 73 off 108-balls including four boundaries, Steve Waugh 14 and Peter Taylor 14 not out.
England best bowler by John Emburey, Phil DeFreitas both took 2-wickets and one for Gladstone Small - Neil Foster.
Graham Gooch named Player of the match for his superb 86 off 119-balls including 7-fours and a six.
This match reported by Tony Lewis (Third Party Reference from The Daily Telegraph)
ENGLAND BEAT Australia by 11 runs in an exciting finish today, an impertinence which shocked the thousands of expatriot Asians who see Sharjah cricket as a week's slaying of all-comers, before the ritual scrap to the death between India and Pakistan.
England, put in to bat, scored 230 for six and Australia, for a long time looking winners, ended up with 219 for nine. Now England have won two of their three matches and join India at the top of the league. So tomorrow, with India and Pakistan completing the final fixture, there are many possibilities, bewildering without a calculator.
However, the simple summary is this: Should India win, them the Sharjah Cup is theirs. If not, them Pakistan also will have two wins. Then the winner of the three teams will be I decided on overall run-rate. England's is the highest at the moment, 4.47 an over.
To beat this Pakistan will have to score at 5.24 an over, which, over 50 overs means a total of 262. Should India lose, they too could win by achieving a run-rate tomorrow of 4.82, which over 50 overs is a total of 241.
Locals' surprise
The locals have come up with a surprising preference. They want England to win the Sharjah Cup so that nothing so mundane as a trophy can come between them and their game of sporting fratricide.
If England do end up on top of the heap they will have eamed it because they have shown resilient character, no more than in this last Australian match, which they were well on the way to losing with 11 overs to go when Border and Boon were in full flow.
The side bowling first tend to prosper in Sharjah because the start of play is in the moist early morning at 9a.m. Not this time, Gooch and Broad showed Davis and Reid the full face of the bat and soon it was clear that these two make a profitable combination, Gooch flexible, easy inventor of strokes, Broad more solid, less ambitious, prepared to wait for his scoring chances.
These two put on 118 for the first wicket and Broad fell only because he felt a little out of touch on a slowish surface and was persuaded by the gremlins in his mind to take a slog at Taylor. He missed.
Gooch, after using irregular parts of the bat eventually settled for the middle and treated Australia to a taste of what might have been if he too had been in Gatting's side during the winter a ferocious sweep off Matthews' spin from outside off-stump, a dismissive book of Waugh, and an on-drive off Reid which burst through O'Donnell's closed hands at mid-on and still flew for four like the rest.
Gooch was third out when the score was 167, but after that the newcomers, Fairbrother, Bailey and Capel almost did well, but got out in panicky ways. If there was a lesson in how to keep cool in a run chase it was given by Emburey. England's 230 for six was the highest score of the tournament so far.
An Australian disaster looked likely when Marsh was out to the first ball of the innings and Wellham followed when the score was only seven. However, all they were doing as it turned out was making way for a partnership of wonderful stroke-play and total domination.
Boon and Border put on 159 for the third wicket and when they were coasting into the 160s Emburey had to make a last desperate move, to recall the most frugal pairing of Small and himself. Small, however, was limping with an injury to his side.
Therefore Small's effort was brave and his figures excellent, but he had to limp off before finishing his quota of overs. Emburey did the trick - two wickets in three balls, Boon and Border gone to excellent fielding.
Boon hit a low skimmer to long-off, where Broad made the catch look easy, then Bailey leapt into an acrobatic, scooping tumble to take Border at deep square leg.
The transformation was total. Thereafter Australia performed illogically, frenetically, and stupidly while England stood around almost impassively as guys in green caps kept running themselves out.
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