Cricket World cup : Flashback of World cups from 1992 to 2003

 

As the countdown for World cup 2023 has started we go down to memory lane and look back at the World cups of the 1990s and 2003

1992 

The 1992 Cricket World Cup (officially the Benson & Hedges World Cup 1992) was the fifth edition of the Cricket World Cup, organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC).  It was held in Australia and New Zealand from 22 February to 25 March 1992, with Pakistan defeating England by 22 runs in the final to become the first-ever World Cup champions.

 The 1992 World Cup was the first to feature coloured jerseys, white cricket balls and black vision screens, with many matches played under floodlights. The 1992 World Cup was also the first to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.  It was also the first World Cup to feature South Africa, which was allowed to rejoin the International Cricket Council as a Test-playing nation after the end of apartheid.  For the first time, the World Cup was not held after an interval of four years, but five.

 The format was changed from previous tournaments with a full round-robin replacing the two qualifying groups of the former.  The preliminary draw was released with eight competing nations and 28 round-robin matches, two semi-finals and one final.  

Co-hosts New Zealand proved to be the surprise package of the tournament, winning their first seven consecutive games to finish top of the table after the round-robin.  The other hosts, Australia, one of the pre-tournament favourites, lost their first two matches.  They bounced back somewhat to win four of the remaining six, but lost in the semifinals race.  The West Indies also finished with a record of 4 win 4 losses , but were behind Australia in run-rate.  South Africa made a triumphant return to international cricket with a win over Australia in their first match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.  South Africa and England had solid campaigns and easily qualified for the semi-finals, despite losing to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe respectively.  India had a disappointing tournament and never looked likely to progress beyond the round-robin.  Sri Lanka were still establishing themselves at the highest level and had only beaten Zimbabwe (who had not yet achieved Test status) and South Africa.

 New Zealand were beaten only twice in the tournament, both times by Pakistan in consecutive matches, in their final group match and in the semi-finals.  Some considered Pakistan lucky to reach the semi-finals: after only one win in their first five matches, they were lucky to even pick up a point from a washed-out match against England after they were bowled out for 74 runs.  In the final round, Pakistan needed to beat New Zealand (who were unbeaten until that stage), and depended on Australia to beat the West Indies.  Both of these happened, and Pakistan finished fourth ahead of Australia thanks to a point from their England game.

In the first semi-final, Pakistan defeated tournament favorites New Zealand in a high-scoring match to win their first semi-final in four attempts and advance to the World Cup final for the first time.  New Zealand batted first and scored 262 runs.  Their captain Martin Crowe was injured while scoring 91. John Wright led during Pakistan's innings . When Inzamam-  Ul-Haq came in to bat, with Pakistan still needing 123 from 15 overs.  He smashed 60 off 37 balls to reach the target and also won the Man of the Match award.

 In the other semi-final between South Africa and England, the match ended in controversial circumstances when, after a 10-minute rain delay, the most productive over format reduced South Africa's target to 22 from 13 balls to 21 from 1 ball.  England scored 252/6 in 45 overs with Hick scoring 83 & South Africa  were 232/6 in 43 overs when the controversy happened and South Africa made a painful exit . 

In a thrilling final, Pakistan beat England by 22 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).  Batting first Pakistan scored 249/6 in 50 overs . Imran played a captain's innings, scoring 72 and Miandad leading the innings with 58, followed by quick scoring  Inzamam (42) and Wasim Akram (33), enabling Pakistan to set England's 250-run target.

 England got off to a shaky start.  Ian Botham was dismissed by Wasim Akram for a duck, followed by Alec Stewart, Hick and Gooch to take England to 69/4.  A solid partnership of 71 between Alan Lamb and Neil Fairbrother led to Imran giving another spell to his main fast bowler Wasim Akram in the 35th over.  The decision wrote the fate of the match.  Two deliveries from the left-arm fast bowler dismissed Alan Lamb and Chris Lewis.  Soon Fairbrother was caught by Moeen Khan at the hands of Aqib Javed and changed England's fortunes.  Imran Khan had the final say when he crowned Pakistan World Champions by catching Richard Illingworth off Ramiz Raja to reach the final.  Martin Crowe (456 runs ) and Wasim Akram (18 wickets ) were the highest rungetters and wicket takers respectively .

1996

The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also known as the Wills World Cup 1996 after its official sponsors, was the sixth Cricket World Cup organized by ITC's Wills brand, the International Cricket Council (ICC).  This was the second World Cup hosted by Pakistan and India, and the first by Sri Lanka.  The tournament was won by Sri Lanka, who defeated Australia in the final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan.

 The Sri Lankan team, coached by Dave Whatmore and captained by Arjun Ranatunga, used Man of the Series Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana as opening batsmen to take advantage of the fielding restrictions  during the first 15 overs of each innings.  At a time when 50 or 60 runs in the first 15 overs were considered sufficient, Sri Lanka scored 117 runs in those overs against India, 123 against Kenya, 121 against England in the quarter-finals and 86 against India in the semi-finals.  Against Kenya, Sri Lanka made 398 for 5, a new record for the highest team score in a One Day International which stood until April 2006.  Gary Kirsten scored an unbeaten 188 against the United Arab Emirates in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.  This became the highest individual score ever in a World Cup match until it was surpassed by West Indies' first Chris Gayle and then Martin Guptill who scored 215 and 237 respectively in the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

India played the first semi-final at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta, in front of an unofficial crowd of 110,000.  As they lost both openers cheaply, Sri Lanka launched a brilliant counter-attack led by Arvinda de Silva (66 off 47 balls ) , which saw India post a total of 251 for 8.  India started well but once Sachin was out for 65 , the batting collapsed against Sri Lanka spin and India slumped to 120 for 8 in the 35th over when sections of the crowd started throwing fruits and plastic bottles onto the field.  Players left the field for 20 minutes in an attempt to calm the crowd.  When the players returned to play, more bottles were thrown onto the field and the stands caught fire.  Match referee Clive Lloyd awarded Sri Lanka the match, the first default in a Test or one-day international.

 In the other semi-final in Mohali, Australia who were tottering at 10/4 ,  reached 207 for 8 in their 50 overs. In reply  West Indies were 165 for 2 before losing their last 8 wickets for 37 off 50 balls and lost the match by 5 runs in sensational fashion. 

So the Final was between Sri Lanka and Australia at Lahore .

 Sri Lanka won the toss in the final and put Australia in to bat, despite the team's batting first having previously won all five World Cup finals.  Australia scored a total of 241 runs in 7 wickets and Mark Taylor top scored with 74 runs.  Sri Lanka won the match in the 47th over with Arvinda de Silva taking 3 for 42 and playing an outstanding  innings of 107 not out and winning the player of the match award.  It was the first time that a tournament host or co-host won the Cricket World Cup. Sachin Tendulkar (523 runs ) and Anil Kumble (15 wickets ) topped the batting and bowling tallies in the tournament 

1999

The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as the ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC).  It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands acting as co-hosts.  The tournament was won by Australia, who defeated Pakistan by 8 wickets in the final at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. New Zealand and South Africa were the other semi-finalists.

 The tournament was held three years after the previous Cricket World Cup, deviating from the usual four-year interval. It was contested by 12 teams, with a total of 42 matches played.  In the group stage, the teams were divided into two groups of six;  Each team played all the others in their group once.  The top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Six, a new concept for the 1999 World Cup;  Each team advanced points from games against other qualifiers from their group and then played each qualifier from the other group (in other words, each qualifier from Group A played each qualifier from Group B).  The top four teams in the Super Six reached the semi-finals.

From the group stages , Pakistan , Australia and New Zealand qualified from one group while South Africa, Zimbabwe and India qualified from other group into the super sixes . Hosts England made their exit .

In the super six stages Australia who struggled to reach the super six stage as they somehow finished 3rd in their group  played at a different level when they beat India , Zimbabwe and South Africa to reach the semis . Chasing 271 ( Gibbs 101)  vs South Africa , Steve Waugh played an outstanding innings of 120 to take Australia into the semis.  India after losing to Australia, outplayed Pakistan by 47 runs but having very few points taken from the group stages costed them dear and they lost their last super six match to New Zealand.   Pakistan dispite losing to India & South Africa, beat Zimbabwe and had good number of points from group stage  to take them to semis while South Africa moved to semis comfortably despite loss to Australia .

In the semis Pakistan helped by Saeed Anwar's 113 surpassed New Zealand 's score of 241 to win by 9 wickets whereas Australia played an epic semi final against South Africa.  Batting first Australia scored 213 helped by Steve Waugh's 56 & Michael Bevan's 65 while Pollock and Donald took 5 and 4 wickets respectively  .In reply , South Africa looked comfortable in the chase before Warne bowled a beauty to dismiss a fast scoring Gibbs (30) and Australia kept taking wickets . Kallis scored 53 and Warne took 4 wickets  but it was Klusener who took the match till the last over and hit 2 fours of Fleming to tie the scores but in trying to get the winning run , Donald was run out.  Match was tied but South Africa were out  as  Australia progressed to the final because they finished higher in the Super Six table than South Africa due to a superior net run rate.

The final was a no contest as Pakistan batted poorly to get 132 allout with Warne getting 4 wickets and then Gilchrist smashed 54 to set up Australia's 8 wicket win with many overs to spare.  Australia thus won their 2nd world cup title . Rahul Dravid (461 runs ) and Geoff Allott along with Shane Warne with 20 wickets each topped the batting and bowling runs and wickets  tallies 

2003

The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC).  It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003.  This edition of the World Cup was played for the first time in Africa.

 14 teams participated in the tournament, the largest number in World Cup history at the time, with a total of 54 matches played.  It followed the format introduced in the 1999 Cricket World Cup, in which teams were divided into two groups, and the top three in each group qualified for the Super Six stage.

 The tournament saw several upsets in the group stage with South Africa, Pakistan, West Indies and England unable to go through to super sixes .  South Africa missed out by 1 run after mis- calculating  the rules of the Duckworth-Lewis method.  England called off their match with Zimbabwe due to political unrest, which ultimately enabled the team to reach the Super Six.  Similarly, New Zealand forfeited their match with Kenya, for security reasons which enabled the latter to reach the semi-finals, the only non-Test playing nation to do so.  Two days after the start of the tournament, another setback occurred when Shane Warne, one of the game's leading spinners, was sent home in disgrace after testing positive for a banned substance.

 The tournament was eventually won by Australia who won all 11 of their matches, defeating India in the final played at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. This was Australia's third World Cup victory, the only team to do so.  Pakistani player Shoaib Akhtar also set a world record, becoming the fastest bowler in cricket history, hitting a record top speed of 161.3 km/h (100.23 mph) in a pool match against England.

In the group stages Australia led by a brilliant Symonds hundred beat Pakistan . The Aussies looked in imperious form as they beat India easily and annihilated all their opponents.  India apart from their disappointment vs Australia, won all their remaining games in the group , beating England due to Ashis Nehra's hostile 6 wickets spell and Pakistan due to Tendulkar's brilliant 98 in a 270 successful  chase .  Australia, India , New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Zimbabwe reached the super sixes where both Australia and India dominated while Sri Lanka  and Kenya sneaked through to semis as the other teams. 

Australia and India outplayed Sri Lanka and Kenya respectively in the semis . While Australia was helped by Symonds 91 to set up their win over Sri Lanka on a slow pitch, India was helped by Tendulkar (83) & skipper Ganguly's (111) batting to beat Kenya .

In the final Ricky Ponting's imperious 140 not out along with Damyn Martyn (88*) & Gilchrist (57) set up Australia's mammoth 359/2 and India were out of the chase as soon as McGrath dismissed Tendulkar (4). Sehwag smashed 82 but it was beyond him to beat the all powerful Aussies singlehandedly and India were hammered by 125 runs with Australia winning their 3rd World cup . Sachin Tendulkar (673 runs) and Chaminda  Vaas (23 wickets ) topped the charts in batting and bowling.