The Asia Cup visited Sharjah yet again, and this time brought with it all the 4 serious, cricket playing nations with it. India and Pakistan did not mind playing in a neutral venue and the sub-continental battle for supremacy in an English game was being played in the oil-rich middle-east. Just like before, Bangladesh were contesting without any serious confidence of winning a game. But Sri Lanka, with a host of ingenious and experienced players, hoped to win the tournament which they only threatened to, in the earlier versions.

After Bangladesh was ritualistically hammered in the first two matches of the tournament, Pakistan clinched the first big match when they beat India. They had to thank their World Cup winning heroes Inzamam Ul-Haq and Wasim Akram for the 266 they put on the board. But it was the Sharjah favourite, Aquib Javed who, with 5 wickets, decimated the strong Indian batting line-up to set up a win by 97 runs.

India could stay in the tournament only if they beat Sri Lanka in their next match and that they did thanks to a superb century from the bat of the prolific Sachin Tendulkar. As in most of his cricket later, Tendulkar sent his team to the finals of a major tournament. But he would have been the first to lay credit at the doors of the bowlers who managed to skittle out Sri Lanka for 202. After that, the batsmen just had to play out the 50 overs.

When the Lankans beat Pakistan, any one of the teams could have gone through to the finals and it happened to be a repeat of the 1991 finals. The absence of Aquib Javed might have been a reason for Pakistan's defeat, but the mess was done by their batsmen, when even Inzamam's unbeaten 73 could take them to a meager 176. After that, all that Pakistan had was hope, but Sri Lanka had 180 runs by the time they hit the winning runs. In the end, Bangladesh too had a role to play. The two teams who beat Bangladesh with a big margin, and lost with a small margin, made it to the finals.

The finals again disappointed the Islanders, as the total of 230 was easily surpassed by India with some superb batting by Navjot Singh Sidhu and Mohd. Azharuddin. Earlier, Asanka Gurusinha's 85 carried Sri Lanka to a respectable tally. But the way Sachin Tendulkar started the innings seemed to have demolished whatever hope they had of winning the match. For India, it was yet another Asia Cup where they had done well. But a few fans did argue that losing to Pakistan was a bigger blow, than the achievement of winning the Cup.