Fortune Favored Imran’s Cornered Tigers-World Cup 1992

1992 Benson & Hedges World Cup Cricket held in Australia New Zealand will be remembered for Imran Khan led Pakistan’s table turning achievement of winning the cup. They were not in contention at the beginning, not even midway through. But the survived from getting knocked out and then with back to the wall bounced back and won the club playing some superlative cricket at business session of the tournament.

Star studded Pakistan Cricket team were favorites for winning the World Cup in 1987 when they were co-host of the Reliance World Cup in 1987 .They stormed into semifinals leading their group .But lost the semifinal to eventual winner Australia marginally. In 1992 Benson & Hedges World Cup played for the first time in Australia New Zealand not only Pakistan no Asian teams were favorites for very different wicket and other conditions those feature cricket in down under .Especially teams from Indian subcontinent struggle to adjust to pace and bounce of Australian surface and swing and wind in New Zealand . Pakistan team looked pretty ordinary at the early stage of the tournament. They could return home empty handed from the group stage had their group match against England would not be rained out. Once getting the sniff charismatic leader Imran Khan leading from the front inspired his Cornered Tigers so efficiently that two youngsters Wasim Akram and Inzamamul Huq appeared as match winners .With world class versatile Javed Minadad  playing steadily well Pakistan went on winning the World Cup beating England in the final at iconic MCG.

 

The 1992 Cricket World Cup was the fifth staging of the Cricket World Cup, organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). For the first time Australia and New Zealandwere co –hosts of the tournament which from 22 February to 25 March 1992. The final was played at Historic Melbourne Cricket Ground between Pakistan and England. The 1992 World Cup was the first when players appeared with coloredclothing. Instead of red cherry white cricket balls were used and black sightscreens were used with a number of matches being played under floodlights. These innovations had been increasingly used in One Day Internationals since Media Moghul Kerry Packer World Series Cricket introduced them in the late 1970s, but they were not a feature of previous World Cups. The 1992 World Cup was also the first to be held in the Southern hemisphere. It was also the first World Cup to include the South Africa national cricket team, which had been allowed to re-join the International Cricket Council as a Test-playing nation after the end of apartheid.

The format was changed from previous tournaments in that a complete round-robin replaced the use of two qualifying groups. The initial draw was released with eight competing countries and 28 round-robin matches. In late 1991, South Africa was re-admitted to the International Cricket Council after long years of apartheid and the draw was amended to include them. The revised draw included 36 round-robin matches plus the two semi-finals and the final.

The rule for calculating the target score for the team batting second in rain-affected matches was also changed. The previous rule simply multiplied the run rate of the team batting first by the number of overs available to the team batting second. This rule was deemed to be too much in favor of the team batting second. In an attempt to rectify this, the target score would now be calculated by the “highest scoring overs” formula.

In this system, if the team batting second had 44 overs available, their target score would be one greater than the 44 highest scoring overs of the team batting first. While the reasoning behind the system was sound, the timing of rain interruptions remained problematic: as the semi-final between England and South Africa demonstrated, where a difficult but eminently reachable 22 runs off 13 balls was reduced to 22 off 7 (the least productive over, a maiden, being deducted) and finally 21 off 1 ball (the next least productive over having given 1 run). It was seen that, if the interruption came during the second innings, the side batting second was at a significant disadvantage – one which was only overcome once, in fact, in England’s group-stage victory over South Africa.

Teams: Australia, New Zealand, England, West Indies, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Round Robin Stage Summary:

Co-hosts New Zealand proved the surprise packet of the tournament, winning their first seven games to finish on top of the table after the round-robin. The other hosts, Australia, one of the pre-tournament favourites lost their first two matches. They recovered somewhat to win four of the remaining six, but narrowly missed out on the semi-finals. The West Indies also finished with a 4–4 record, but were just behind Australia on run-rate. South Africa made a triumphant return to international cricket with a win over Australia at the SCG in their first match. They and England had solid campaigns and easily qualified for the semis, despite upset losses to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe respectively. India had a disappointing tournament and never looked likely to progress beyond the round-robin. Sri Lankawas still establishing them at the highest level and beat only Zimbabwe (who did not yet have Test status) and South Africa.

New Zealand were defeated only twice in the tournament, both times by Pakistan, in their final group match and in the semi-final. Pakistan had been lucky to be in the semi-finals at all: following only one victory in their first five matches, they were also fortunate to scrape a point from the washed-out match against England which appeared to be heading for a heavy English victory (Pak 74 all out, England 24/1): eventually they finished one point ahead of Australia with an inferior run-rate.

Points Table of Round Robin League:

Teams	Played	Points	Win	Loss	No Result	Tie	Run Rate
New Zealand	8	14	7	1	0	0	4.76
England	8	11	5	2	1	0	4.36
South Africa	8	10	5	3	0	0	4.36
Pakistan	8	9	4	3	1	0	4.33
Australia	8	8	4	4	0	0	4.22
West Indies	8	8	4	4	0	0	4.14
India	8	5	2	5	1	0	4.95
Sri Lanka	8	5	2	5	1	0	4.21
Zimbabwe	8	2	1	7	0	0	4.03

 Knock Out Stage:

Semi Final:

Pakistan Vs New Zealand Played on 21 March 19992 at Eden Park Auckland, New Zealand

Pakistan 264 /6 (Inzamamul Huq 60, Javed Miandad 57*, Imran Khan 44, Ramiz Raza 44, W Watson 2/39)   beat New Zealand 262/7 (MD Crowe 91, KR Rutherford 50, Wasim Akram 2/40, Mustaq Ahmed 2/40 ) by 4 wickets .

New Zealand topped the round robin league winning 7 of the 8 group matches and was in sizzling hot form to win the tournament. Winning the toss and electing to bat Kiwis posted a very challenging score of 262/7 in allotted overs. Pakistan in response 4/140 at one stage and was heading to loss. But Young Inzamamul Huq joining seasoned Javed Miandad turned the tide with a blistering innings of 60 in only 37 deliveries. Miandad played the anchoring role with an unbeaten 57. Pakistan robbed the match from the Kiwis in whirlwind fashion.

England Vs South Africa Played on 22^nd March 1992 at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG)

England 252 /6 { ( 45 Overs )  GA Hick 83 , AJ Stewart 33, MW Pringle 2/36, AA Donald 2/69 }  beat South Africa 232/6 { ( 43 Overs ) AC Hudson 46, JN Rhodes 43, AP Kuiper 36, RK Illingworth 2/46, GC Small 2/51}by 20 runs.

Rain interrupted play before the last ball of the 43rd over. South Africa then required 22 runs off 13 balls for victory. With 2 overs lost due to rain, the target was reduced to 21 runs from only 1 ball. South Africa must consider them unlucky of a likely victory being deprived by lady luck. They had a fair chance of scoring 20 in two overs with 4 wickets still at hand.

Final Played on March 25, 1992 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Pakistan 249/6( Imran Khan 72 ,Javed Miandad 58, Inzamam-ul-Haq 42 ,Wasim Akram 33 , DR Pringle 3/22 )  beat England 227 All Out  ( NH Fairbrother 62, AL Lamb 31 , Mustaq Ahmed 3/41 Wasim Akram 3/49, Aqib Javed 2/ 27)by 22 runs.

Brave Captain Imran Khan played the entire tournament with injured shoulder. He led from the front opting to bat at number three and guiding the innings. Talented Javed Miandad was at the form of his life time. Their solid third wicket partnership of 139 laid the foundation for young Inzamam and Wasim play their normal game. Yet 249 did not appear a winning score till Pakistan’s wonder boy produced two beautiful swinging deliveries to get read of Alan Lamb and CC Lewis at the critical stage of the match. Wasim also accounted for IT Botham earlier.A solid partnership of 71 between Allan Lamb and Neil Fairbrother left Imran with no choice but to give an early second spell to his main pacer Wasim Akram in the 35th over. The decision wrote the fate of the match. Two magical deliveries from the great left arm fast bowler showed Allan Lamb and the dangerous Chris Lewis the pavilion door.Pakistan went on getting rid of well settled Fairbrother caught by Moin Khan off Aaqib Javed to seal England’s last hope. When the cards were laid down, Captain Imran Khan had the last laugh when Richard Illingworth was caught by Ramiz Raja off his delivery to finish off the final and crown Pakistan World Champions of cricket.

We know fortune favors the brave .Imran named his squad cornered tigers .Cornered they were from the start till most of the round robin .Few thought of them even advancing beyond robin league .But they went on and on relying on excellent team combination and dynamic leadership and deservedly won the cup .

1992 Benson and Hedges World Cup statistics

• Administrator – International Cricket Council
• Cricket format – One Day International
• Tournament formats – Round robin and Knockout
• Hosts – Australia and New Zealand
• Champions – Pakistan (1st title)
• Participants – 9
• Matches played – 39
• Most runs – Martin Crowe (456)
• Most wickets – Wasim Akram (18)
• Player of the series – Martin Crowe (New Zealand)
• Player of the match – Wasim Akram (Pakistan)