India’s last outing in a 50 over match with red ball and all whites

After a rain-marred day in Canberra on Saturday, India’s preparations for the pink-ball Test in Adelaide were limited to a 50-overs-per-side practice game against the Australia Prime Miner’s XI on Day 2.
It is not very often that we see a 50-over game being played in all whites with a red or pink ball. Though red-ball 50-over matches were a common sight in the ’90s, the last international ODI with the red ball and white clothing interestingly involved India, when they hosted Zimbabwe in 2000.
In their final game of a five-match series on December 14, 2000 – India’s last fixture of the 20th century – the teams played an ODI in white flannels with the red ball.
Follow our liveblog of the second day of the India vs Australia Prime Miner’s XI Test here: IND vs PM’s XI day 2
India won the match 39 runs, as a well-rounded performance the current national selector Ajit Agarkar saw the side cross the line comfortably. He scored 67 off 25 deliveries, aided a quickfire half-century in 21 balls. Incidentally, Agarkar eclipsed Kapil Dev’s record of 22 balls to become the fastest Indian player to score a half-century in ODIs, helping India cross the 300 on the scoreboard. He partnered up with Reetinder Sodhi who scored 53 off 67 balls.
Watch Ajit Agarkar’s fastest ODI fifty
Agarkar then went on to pick three wickets in the match as Zimbabwe was bundled out for 262, earning him a well-deserved Man of the Match award. Interestingly, the match also marked the first time Rahul Dravid captained the Indian side ahead of his future full-time as the skipper across formats.
India eventually won the series 4-1 after downing Zimbabwe 1-0 in the Test series that preceded the limited-overs games.
Twenty-four years later, India are playing a similar format against PMXI in Canberra, even though the game will not warrant a place in the official record books.