After travelling to Australia and the Sub-continent the ‘global-ball’ trophy returned to the founding fathers of cricket England. The United Kingdom is ready to host the 7th edition of the World Cup for the fourth time. This edition is famous for the underdog Zimbabwe upsetting the Indians and the old saying in cricket has emerged “it does not finish, until it is over.” The 7th edition of the Cricket World Cup began with the glory of the most dominating cricket team of all time, after beating Pakistan in the finals Australia started to dominate the cricket for a decade.  

In Continuation to our series “A Countdown to World Cup” today we are sharing the stories of the 1999 World Cup.

World Cup of 1999

The ICC Cricket World Cup of 1999, also known as England Cup 99, was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Mostly hosted by England, selected matches were also held in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands. Australia won the tournament defeating Pakistan by 8 wickets in the final at Lord’s in London. This edition was held three years after the previous Cricket World Cup, deviating from the usual four-year gap.

Format

It involved 12 teams that played a total of 42 matches. In the subgroup stage, the teams were divided into two groups of six; each team played everyone else in their group once. The top three teams from each group qualified for the Super Sixes, a new concept for the 1999 World Cup; each team carried over points from games against other qualifiers in their group and then played each qualifier in a different group (i.e. each qualifier in Group A played each qualifier in Group B and vice versa). Semi-finals were played between the top four teams of the super-six.

Super Six

Semi-finals

The first semi-final was played between unpredictable Pakistan and the knockout hunter New Zealand at Old Trafford, where Pakistanis hunted the Kiwis and marched towards finals. New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat, with the help of Roger Towse 46 New Zealand reached 247 for 7 in 50 overs. In reply Pakistan achieved the target with 15 balls to spare, Saeed Anwar emerged as the hero by scoring an unbeaten 113*. Pakistan’s speedster Shoaib Akhtar was awarded man of the match for his heroic spell. 

The second semi-final of the 1999 Cricket World Cup was a One Day International (ODI) match played on 17 June 1999 at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, England. It was played between South Africa and Australia. South Africa won the toss and elected to field, the match ended in a draw with a runout involving Allan Donald and Lance Klusener booking Australia’s place in the final where they will play Pakistan. Australia was promoted to the finals because of a higher net run rate in the super six. 

Finals

The final of the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup was played on 20 June 1999 at Lord’s in London. It was the fourth time Lord’s hosted the ICC Cricket World Cup final, having previously hosted finals in 1975, 1979 and 1983. Australia won another title, defeating Pakistan in the final by 8 wickets. Shane Warne was declared man of the match. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. In a good bowling display, Australia bowled out Pakistan for 132 runs. Pakistan has not established significant partnerships. The choice of the bowlers was Shane Warne who took 4 wickets for 33 runs from 9 overs. In reply, Adam Gilchrist immediately attacked and scored a quick 50. Australia won the match in 20.1 overs for the loss of just two wickets. Warne won the Man of the Match award and Australia won the World Cup.

Statistics 

Top Run Scorer

Top Wicket Taker