Chak De India!

Chak De India!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Win #22 - 1999 World Cup wins

1999 World Cup had the Indian bowling back to full-strength (Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Anil Kumble) as well as the batting might of Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid to mount a strong challenge on the Cup. But, the result was not to the expectations of the Indian fans.

Nevertheless, there were few memorable wins during this campaign, each one unique in its own way. As the Indian team started its campaign, news came that Sachin Tendulkar's father had passed away. Sachin returned back to India but on his mother's request as well as his own will to help India even at that stage, came to England to continue the tournament.

Sachin Tendulkar century at Bristol even though against Kenya was of great personal value. This was Sachin's first match after his father's demise and he was visibly emotional in the match. In this situation, scoring a century was a tremendous effort by the Master. Sachin started slowly but then picked up soon and reached his century in 84 balls. This was his first century down the order but what was noticeable were two shots in the innings - the first one was his first reverse sweep in international matches against Maurice Odumbe and then he did a Viv Richards by pulling the last ball of the innings over mid-wicket for a six! Rahul Dravid was his partner in crime, scoring a century that was unnoticed by everyone. India romped home, thanks to Mohanty's four-wicket haul and tight bowling by the others.

India defeated Sri Lanka at Taunton thanks to the highest second wicket partnership ever in ODI cricket between Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. 318 runs were scored in less than 45 overs by this duo, each scoring a century against the helpless Sri Lankans. On a smallish ground, there were sixes galore by Ganguly who toyed with the bowling to hit 183. Vaas went for more than 80 runs in his spell while Murali was hit for 60 in his ten overs. It was what one would call carnage at Taunton, such was the dominance of the two batsmen. In response to the Indian total of 373, the response was poor. Other than Aravinda de Silva, rest of the batting could hardly put any fight. Robin Singh picked up a five-wicket haul to hasten the Indian victory by 157 runs.

India also notched up their third consecutive win in World Cup over Pakistan, defending a smallish total against their rivals. Rahul Dravid and Azharuddin scored half-centuries while Sachin also contributed to the total but the team could not get going as much as they would have wished. The run-rate hardly climbed above four runs per over in the first 40 overs. Azharuddin and Robin Singh pushed the run-rate higher so that the team could post a target of 4.5 runs per over. The Indian bowling acquired additional strength thanks to the helpful conditions - Srinath and Prasad took eight wickets between them to claim an easy 47-run victory. Regular fall of wickets contributed to the quick demise of Pakistan innings.

India won four matches (against KenyaSri LankaEngland and Pakistan) but lost others (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia and New Zealand) to bow out of the tournament before the semifinal. Pakistan would go ahead and finish as runners-up to Australia. This loss was numbing for the Indian fans but soon, there would be a bigger tragedy for Indian cricket - the match-fixing scandal. 

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