The Greatest Game of One-Day Cricket ever!

The 7th Cricket World Cup (WC) was hosted in England, with 12 participating teams, playing 42 matches during May and June 1999. Some of the matches were also played in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands. The 9 Full Member teams that played were Sri Lanka [ SL ( defending champions)], England, Australia, New Zealand (NZ), West Indies WI), Pakistan, India, South Africa ( SA) and Zimbabwe while the three Associate Members were Bangladesh, Kenya and Scotland.

In the original Group stage, teams were divided into two groups of six, with each team playing the others in their Group once. The top three teams from each Group advanced to the Super 6s ( as it was called). In a new concept, each team carried forward the points from the games against the other teams, and then played each of the qualifiers from the other group. Then the top four teams, in the Super 6s, advanced to the semifinals. Sadly, defending champions, SL fell by the wayside, having won only two games, vs Kenya and Zimbabwe, and this was despite the fact that, SL had virtually the same XI in 1996, as World champions, and led by the same skipper, Arjuna Ranatunga. Roy Dias was the coach. Perhaps the stay at the top of the Cricket World, from

1996, was too much?

As an immediate aftermath of the 1999 WC, SA skipper

Hansie Cronje, then a highly respected skipper being found guilty of match fixing, with three of his teammates. A very composed captain, Cronje barely showed his anger on the field of play, managing to keep cool in the face of adversity, just as the famous international tennis player Bjorn Borg of Sweden did so on the court. Even when SA tragically lost to the lowly placed Zimbabwe by 48 runs, during this tournament, Cronje kept his cool. Of course, one must remember that Cronje led his country, with support from coach Bob Woolmer, to victories against every other nation except Australia. However, subsequently, Cronje was found guilty of match-fixing that stunned the cricket world. Hardly anyone accepted this charge against Cronje, such was the respect he commanded, though later, on his own admission, he was forced to accept his guilt. It was a tragic ending that concluded with his death in an airplane crash. Indeed, Bob Woolmer too, died under suspicious circumstances later, when he was coaching the Pakistan Test team at the WC.

Back to the 1999 Cricket WC

The semi-finalists were Pakistan, NZ, Australia and SA. The semi-final between SA and Australia, which ended in a tie, was, obviously, a hair-raising game. SA batted first and put up what seemed a fairly competitive total in that era of 213, with Herschelle Gibbs scoring 101. In reply, Australia began not too confidently.

The turning point of the match occurred when Australian skipper Steve Waugh was dropped by Gibbs at short mid-wicket, as Gibbs attempted to throw the ball up into the air in celebration, only for the ball to slip through his fingers. After the dropped chance, Waugh reportedly said to Gibbs "You've just dropped the WC mate". Waugh denied saying this, but the quote has lived on in cricketing folklore and, being the fighter that he is, Waugh went on to score an unbeaten 120 to guide Australia home by 5 wickets.

Here’s how the game went.

SA won the toss and skipper Cronje elected to field. In seaming conditions, fast men Shaun Pollock 5/36 and Allan Donald 4/32 restricted Australia to 213, with only Michael Bevan 65, and skipper Steve Waugh 56, scoring vital half-centuries. SA began their chase steadily, with Kirsten and Gibbs putting on a good opening partnership of 40 runs. Wickets then fell at regular intervals as SA collapsed to 61/4. Jacques Kallis 53 and Jonty Rhodes 43, then put together a vital partnership, taking SA within 40 runs of victory. Through some valuable runs from Mark Boucher and Pollock, and some big hitting from Lance Klusener, SA moved closer to the target. Shane Warne’s leg-spinners enabled him capture 4 top- order batsmen, Kirsten, Gibbs, Cronje and Cullinan for a measly 29 runs, which rightfully earned him the Man of the Match award.

Eventually, SA entered the final over at 205/9, needing 9 runs to win. The two men at the crease were hard hitting left-hander Lance Klusener, who was on strike, and No. 10 Allan Donald at the other end. Australian paceman Damien Fleming was the bowler, who now had the unenviable task of bowling the last over to Klusener. In an effort to bowl yorkers, the first two deliveries were full and Klusener had no difficulty in dispatching them to the boundary. eight runs in two balls. Now the scores were level!

Three balls to go with Klusener on strike. Now SA merely had to make a run to enter the final. Obviously, Australian skipper Waugh now brought the fielders in, to prevent the vital run being taken. Next delivery was hit by Klusener to Lehmann standing at mid-on. Donald was backing up a long way at the non-striker’s end and, if Lehmann’s throw at the stumps had hit, Donald would have been easily run out. But no run!

Now came the crucial fourth ball. Klusener actually mishit the ball to Mark Waugh at mid-off and went for the elusive run, though two balls still remained. Klusener sprinted down the pitch, while his partner Donald, who had dropped his bat in his excitement, at the other end, instead of watching his partner, did not hear the call for a run. Waugh picked the ball and threw the ball to Fleming, who rolled the ball to wicketkeeper Gilchrist, who whipped the bails off and Donald was run out comfortably!

Bill Lawry commentating (or screaming) about the final ball said, "There it is, this will be out surely - oh it's out, it's gonna be run out...oh, that is SA out - Donald did not run, I cannot believe it. Australia go into the WC Final - ridiculous running with two balls to go. Donald did not go, Klusener came - what a disappointing end for SA.”

South African Woolmer resigned after this match. In 2007, shortly before his death, he revealed that Donald and most of his teammates were in tears after the result, and put towels over their heads so no-one could see them.

Even lowly placed Zimbabwe turned trumps, beating India in a close game by 3 runs, and also got the better of semifinalists SA by 48 runs. However, they could not enter the semifinals. Some of the unusual features in the 1999 WC games were India’s Sachin Tendulkar taking leave midway through the tournament, as he had to attend his father’s funeral, but returned thereafter. Pakistan’s off-spinner Saqlain Musthaq completed a hat-trick against Zimbabwe, capturing the last 3 wickets. Sri Lanka captain, Arjuna Ranatunga made 50 runs against Kenya, in his last WC game.

However, the 1999 WC semifinal between Australia and SA, played on June 17 at Edgbaston, has been described by knowledgeable journalists as the greatest ODI match ever played. The last over was a thriller and the manner in which the pendulum of the game swung to and fro made many observers considered it the best of the 1,483 ODI matches played up to that time.

Australia went on to win the final at Lord's, beating Pakistan by 8 wickets, after bowling them out cheaply. They would then go on to win the 2003 and 2007 WCs, and achieve a run of 34 unbeaten WC matches, which finally ended when they lost to Pakistan in the Group stage of the 2011 WC. SA, on the other hand, maintained their trend of choking at the WC. In 1992, they lost to England in the semifinals, when rain forced them to score 22 runs off the final ball, while in 1996, they won all their Group matches before losing to the WI in the quarterfinals.

The Wisden Cricketers' Almanack opened its report of the match with: "This was not merely the match of the tournament, it must have been the best ODI of the 1,483 so far played. The essence of the oneday game is a close finish, and this was by far the most significant to finish in the closest way of all - with both teams' all out for the same score. But it was a compressed epic all the way through, and it ended in a savage twist."

In 2000, the match featured among CricInfo's 100 great matches of the 20th century. Steve Waugh called it "the best game of cricket I've played", while in 2004, The Sydney Morning Herald ranked it the 20th-biggest moment in Australian cricket. [In 2010, The Times rated SA's choke in the final over as the second-biggest sporting choke of all time. In 2009, Shaun Pollock revealed that, when betting at the Durban July horse race, shortly after the match, he was told "Whatever you do, don't bet on No.1. 'The birth of the chokers tag'0, he doesn't run", a reference to Donald not running, although Donald had actually been the No.11 batsman.

The twists, turns and close finishes resulted in many observers regarding the match as the perfect ODI from an entertainment perspective. The record-breaking ODI between Australia and SA 7 years later, in 2006, continued the close rivalry between the two teams.

What a game of cricket that was.