World Cup '99 - the best of the seven (22 June 1999)

22 June 1999

World Cup '99 - the best of the seven

Tony Becca

The 1999 World Cup of cricket which ended at Lord's on Sunday was a lovely tournament, worthy to be ticked off as the best and most exciting of all seven.

For 38 days, the nine Test-playing teams, plus Bangladesh, Kenya and Scotland battled for the honours in cricket's showpiece, and although Australia turned the showdown for the title into a disappointing anti-climax with a ruthless performance against Pakistan, the action up to then demonstrated the best of cricket in terms of quality play, surprises and upsets, magnificent recoveries and breath-taking finishes.

From day one when England thrashed defending champions Sri Lanka, it was cricket, lovely cricket highlighted by the scintillating stroke play of batsmen like Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, and Ajay Jadeja of India, Steve Waugh of Australia, and Saeed Anwar of Pakistan, the superb bowling of Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose of the West Indies, Glen McGrath and Shane Warne of Australia, Geoff Allott of New Zealand, and Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushtaq of Pakistan, and the brilliant fielding of South Africa and Australia.

Who can forget, for example, the splendid batting display by Dravid (145) and Ganguly (183) against Muttiah Muralitheran and company when India blasted Sri Lanka for 373 for six, Jadeja's 100 not out in a losing cause against Australia, and the most glittering of all, Steve Waugh's match-winning 120 not out off 110 deliveries in the Super Six match against South Africa?

When it comes to the bowlers, who can forget pacer McGrath's skill when he knocked out the West Indies with a haul of five wickets for 14 runs, Saqlain's hat-trick against Zimbabwe, and the tantalising spin of Warne against South Africa in the semi-final and Pakistan in the final?

And when it comes to fielding, the South Africans - led by Jonty Rhodes and Herschelle Gibbs, the Australians - led by Ricky Ponting, and four catches - one by James Adams and one by Ijaz Ahmed, one by Mark Waugh and one by Ponting, both on in the final, will be remembered for ever.

The memories of World Cup '99 go and on, and also numbered among them are Zimbabwe's victory over South Africa, Pakistan's loss to Bangladesh, Australia's great run from their penultimate first round match against Bangladesh when they had to win five matches to reach the semi-finals, their great escape when, with South Africa needing one run to win with three deliveries to go, they needed a tie to advance to the final, and the exciting, invaluable batting of Moin Khan of Pakistan and Lance Klusener of South Africa.

Although he failed to deliver in the final, Khan scored 236 runs off 207 deliveries while hitting Pakistan out of trouble on a number of occasions, and although, with one run needed to win the semi-final against Australia, he backed off and went for a single instead of one of his big hits, Klusener, the man of the tournament who also took 17 wickets, smashed 281 runs in eight innings for an average of 140.50 and at a strike rate of 122.

When you go from match to match, when you also remember the testing bowling of New Zealand's left-arm pacer Allott who finished tied with Warne for most wickets, the batting of Scotland's Gavin Hamilton, Zimbabwe's Neil Johnson who batted through the innings against Australia and finished with 132 not out, New Zealand's Roger Twose, and Kenya's Steve Tikolo, and on top of that, the performances of Zimbabwe who defeated India and South Africa in the first round to hop into the second round ahead of Sri Lanka and England, and Bangladesh who stunned Pakistan, there was enough, despite the failure of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara to stamp their class on the proceedings, to rate World Cup '99 as the best ever.

There were glorious displays, heroic performances, epic contests, and thrilling finishes. The tournament also saw the cinderella teams performing better than they have ever done.

In 1983, Zimbabwe surprised Australia, and in 1996, Kenya upset the West Indies. This time, however, they were better prepared, their standard of play was higher than before, they were generally more competitive, and they produced some of the stars.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner