Aussie Rule Commenced – ICC World Cup 1999

Carribean rule of World Cricket started losing momentum by the middle of 1980s. After the golden generation of brilliant batsmen ( Greenidge, Haynes ,Richards ,Rowe , Lloyd ,King ) and aggressive fast bowlers (Marshall, Holding,Roberts , Garner ,Croft) West Indies started struggling despite of being blessed with Brain Lara one of the all-time best batsman dominating all bowlers. An all-conquering Australian team started emerging from the middle of 1990s .In the beginning of its amazing journey it won its first of three consecutive world cup tournament beating Pakistan at Lords by 8 wickets .A galaxy of cricket superstars Waugh Brothers ,Ponting ,Moody ,Bevan Gilchrist, McGrath ,Fleming ,Warne started developing Australia as all conquering one of the greatest team of all time. People started comparing them with Bradman’s super team and the West Indies team of 1970s and 1980s.They were also lucky in semifinal against South Africa which in fact ended in a tie with both teams scoring 213 .Australia could only move ahead as they finished higher than South Africa in the super six round.

The 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup, the seventh edition of the tournament, was hosted primarily by England, with some games being hosted in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands. The 12 contesting teams were divided into two groups; each team played all the others in their group during the league stage. The top three from each group advanced to the Super Sixes, a new concept for the 1999 World Cup, where each qualifier from group A played each qualifier from group B. The teams also carried forward their points from the games against the other qualifiers from their group. The top four in the Super Sixes contested the semi-finals.

Bangladesh appearing for the first time as ICC associate qualifier rocked the 1992 World Cup Champion and tournament runners up Pakistan by 62 runs which later paved their way in achieving ICC full membership.
Lance Klusener of South Africa was declared the Player of the Tournament. Rahul Dravid of India scored most runs (461) in the tournament. Geoff Allott of New Zealand and Shane Warne of Australia tied each other for most wickets taken (20) in the tournament.
Teams:Australia, Pakistan, India, WestIndies, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand, England, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Kenya, Scotland.
The nine full members contested the World Cup along with three associate members: Kenya, and for the first time, Bangladesh and Scotland who all qualified through the 1997 ICC Trophy

Match Summary:

Top three teams South Africa, India and Zimbabwe qualified for the Super Six. The greatest surprise of the group was England not being able to advance from the group. Less fancied Zimbabwe moved up playing very impressive cricket. They beat India and South Africa in the group matches elbowing out fancied England on better net run rate. South Africa came out the group leaders winning 4 of their 5 group matches .But they were surprised by a very spirited Zimbabwe. India also lost to South Africa and Zimbabwe but finished second on better run rates.Zimbabwe qualified for super six.

Pakistan won 4 of its first group matches and surprisingly lost to debutant Bangladesh by 62 runs making it one of the much talked about surprises in the World Cup history. Without taking away any credit from the Bangladesh team it must be said this was a very unexpected result given that Pakistan was one of the tournament favorite possessing some of the top ODI cricketers at that time. Bangladesh played for the first time. Batting first Bangladesh scored a moderate 223/9 in allotted overs with Akram Khan contributing 42. Saqlain Mustaq grabbed 5/ 35 .Pakistan’s strong batting collapsed and could manage only 161 runs there by losing the match by 62. The match created some controversies with team coach Legendary Gordon Greenidge refusing to stay with the team and ICC conducting an enquiry on match fixing allegations. Australia and New Zealand qualified for better run rates over West Indies.

Pakistan ,Australia and South Africa all won three matches and earned 6 points .But Pakistan topped the table for better run rates .Pakistan lost against arch rivals India which however was the only Indian victory in the super six. Pakistan has never won a match against India in world cup. Rain interrupted the match between New Zealand and Zimbabwe ending in no result. Top four teams advanced to semifinals.
Semi Finals:
SF1: Pakistan played against New Zealand at Old Trafford on 15 June 1999.
Pakistan 242/1 (Saeed Anwar 113*, Wajhatullah Wasti 84) beat New Zealand 241/7 (RW Twose 46, CL Cairns 44*, SP Fleming 41, Shoaib Akhter 3/46, Wasim Akram 2/45) by 9 wickets
SF2: Australia played South Africa at Edgbaston Birmingham on 17 June 1999
Australia 213 all out ( MG Bevan 65 , SR Waugh 56 , SM Pollock 5/36 ) tied the match With South Africa 213 All Out ( JK Kallis 53 , JN Rhodes 43 , SK Warne 4/29)
First tie in the semifinal of world cup. Two evenly matched team played a low scoring tied match .South Africa must consider them unlucky as at 6/175 they appeared to be cruising for victory. But once Warne removed Kallis the innings caved in .The last two batsmen Elworthy and Donald ran themselves out. Australia moved to final best finishing higher in super six.
Final: Pakistan played Against Australia at Lords on 20 June 1999.
Australia 133/2 (AC Gilchrist 54, ME Waugh 37) beat Pakistan 132 ( Ijaz Ahmed 22, Shane Warne 4/33) All Out by 8 Wickets
Pakistan was completely out played in the most one sided final of the World Cup. The batsmen batted very poorly and could not post even a challenging score. Perhaps it was a natural justice to some of doubts raised about Wasim Akram’s team’s integrity in some matches of the tournament. Australians were worthy winners.

Leading Scorers

• *Rahul Dravid 461 (India)
• *Steve Waugh 398 (Australia)
• *Sourav Ganguly 379 (India)
• *Mark Waugh 375 (Australia)
• *Saeed Anwar 368 (Pakistan)

Leading Wicket Takers.

• *Shane Warne 20 (Australia)
• *Geoff Allot 20 (New Zealand)
• *Glen McGrath 18 (Australia)
• *LnaceKlusner 17 (South Africa)
• *SaqlainMustaq 17 (Pakistan)

1999 ICC World Cup statistics
• Administrator – International Cricket Council
• Cricket format – One Day International
• Tournament formats – Round robin and Knockout
• Host – England
• Champions – Australia (2nd title)
• Participants – 12
• Matches played – 42
• Most runs – Rahul Dravid (461))
• Most wickets – Geoff Allott (20) and Shane Warne (20)
• Player of the series – Lance Klusener (South Africa)
• Player of the Final match – SK Warne(4/33) (Australia)