LAHORE, 16 October 2004 — Captain Inzamam-ul Haq said he was confident Pakistan would defy history to claim their first ever home One-Day tournament title against Sri Lanka today.

Pakistan, who have never won a one-day competition on home soil, go into the tri-series final on a high having registered four straight wins against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

However, past Pakistani disasters include losing the 1987 World Cup semifinal to Australia and the 1994 tri-series final to the same opponents. Pakistan also failed to reach the 1996 World Cup final, which Sri Lanka won.

“We know history is against us but we can change that through our fifth win in this tri-series and I am confident we can do that,” said Inzamam, whose side upsatged Sri Lanka by six wickets in the final league match on Thursday.

“We have a better chance of winning the tournament and our confidence is higher than them because of two wins over Sri Lanka in the league phase,” he said, adding that the toss will be vital. But Pakistan’s preparations have been dealt a blow after star pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar tweaked a hamstring during Thursday’s match. “Akhtar was injured during Thursday’s match and will have a fitness test,” said Inzamam. Sri Lankan skipper Marvan Atapattu, who scored a century on Thursday, said his side would draw inspiration from their 1996 World Cup win at this venue. “Of course, every Sri Lankan player draws inspiration from that historic triumph and we would also like to do that but for that we have to lift ourselves and match that performance,” said Atapattu.

“The morale would have been greater had we won the last match but cricket is a funny game, especially One-Day cricket where things can change quickly,” he said.

Muralitharan, whose record 532 Test wickets was surpassed by Australian Shane Warne in India on Friday, is unavailable while he recovers from shoulder surgery.

Separately, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) turned down a request from both captains to start the day-night match two hours earlier to avoid Lahore’s heavy evening dew, which makes for difficult playing conditions.

Jennings Named as South Africa’s Caretaker Coach

Meanwhile, former wicketkeeper Ray Jennings was appointed South Africa’s caretaker coach until May 2005 yesterday. Jennings, 50, succeeds Eric Simons, who resigned earlier in the wake of South Africa’s recent poor run of results. Jennings takes over four weeks before the South African squad leave to play two Tests in India. “The job will be exciting, but daunting to start off with,” Jennings, who played most of his 159 first-class matches in the 1970s and 80s while South Africa was isolated from international cricket because of apartheid, said in Durban.