The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup: 


was the eighth Cricket World Cup and
was played in South Africa/Zimbabwe/Kenya from 9 February to 24 March.
2003 was the first time that the Cricket World Cup had been held in
Africa. The tournament featured 14 teams and 54 matches, the most in
the tournament history up to that time. The tournament followed the
format introduced in the 1999 Cricket World Cup.14 teams played, In
the first round, they were divided into two groups of seven teams. The
top three from each group qualified for the Super Sixes, carrying
forward the results they had achieved against other qualifiers from
their group into the Super Sixes round. The top four teams in the
Super Sixes round qualified for the semi-finals, and the winners of
those matches played the final.
The tournament saw upsets in the first round with South Africa,
Pakistan, West Indies and England failing to make it to Super Sixes
stage while Zimbabwe and Kenya made it to Super Sixes stage and Kenya,
a non-Test playing nation, made the semi-finals of the tournament.The
tournament was won by Ricky Ponting's Australia who defeated Sourav
Ganguly's India in the final.Sachin Tendulkar, for his demolition of
bowling attacks, was named Player of the Series.

Final Highlights:

1999 World Cup final was played between India and Australia. India won
the toss, and Ganguly, asked Australia to bat, hoping to take
advantage of a pitch left damp by dew and rain. On a lively Wanderers
Stadium pitch, the Australian openers took advantage of very wayward
Indian opening bowlers to get off to a flying start. Adam Gilchrist
(57 from 48 balls, 8 fours, 1 six) and Matthew Hayden (37 from 54
balls, 5 fours) shared an opening partnership of 105 runs in 14 overs,
forcing Ganguly to bring on the spinners unusually early. The change
of pace brought wickets with Adam Gilchrist, who had been swinging at
everything, holing out off a sweep shot from the bowling of Harbhajan
Singh. Matthew Hayden, looking somewhat better than he had throughout
the tournament, soon followed for 37, leaving Australia at 2/125
Captain Ricky Ponting (140 from 121 balls, 4 fours, 8 sixes) and
Damien Martyn (88 from 84 balls, 7 fours, 1 six) (playing with a
broken thumb) then completed a partnership of 234 runs in 30.1 overs,
an Australian record for one-day cricket. Ponting and Martyn started
efficiently, putting away bad balls but mostly keeping the scoring
going with good running, then letting loose in the last ten overs,
taking 109 from them. Ponting in particular dispatched the bowling
over the fence with fearsome regularity in scoring 8 sixes, the most
from one batsman in any World Cup match at the time. The final
Australian total of 359 (2 wickets, 50 overs), at a run rate of 7.18
runs an over, was their then second highest ever in ODI history.

India's colossal run chase was made even more difficult after their
trump card, Sachin Tendulkar, was out in the first over after skying a
pull shot, Glenn McGrath completing the caught and bowled.
Nevertheless, Virender Sehwag's (82 from 81 balls, 10 fours, 3 sixes)
run-a-ball half century gave India respectability as they maintained a
high scoring rate. Their only realistic hope – a washout – looked a
possibility as the game was interrupted by rain in the 18th over. This
rain proved fleeting, but Australia had taken few wickets and when
more rain looked to arrive India were leaders according to DL method.
However, this rain passed by, and India's hopes were dashed when
Sehwag was run out by Darren Lehmann, and again when Rahul Dravid (47
from 57 balls, 2 fours) was bowled by Brett Lee, ending their
partnership of 88 runs in 13.2 overs. India's batsmen continued to
throw wickets away in the chase as the run rate crept up past 7 an
over, and they were finally bowled out for 234 (all out, 39.2 overs)
at a run rate of 5.97 runs an over giving Australia an emphatic
victory by a record margin (in World Cup finals thus far) of 125 runs,
underlining their dominance of the tournament. Ponting was named Man
Of The Match

Tournament Highlights:

The highlight of 2003 World cup was league match between Srilanka and
South Africa. Srilanka own the toss and elected to bat first. With
the help of century form M Atapattu (124) and Half-century from A Desilva
(73), Srilanka posted mammoth total of 268/9 in their 50 overs.While
chasing, SA began well with good opening stand from Smith and Gibbs. When
SA were going well, rain god visited the ground which forced to delay
the match and called off. Before the game was delayed and ultimately
called off for rain, the South African team gave to the batsmen a
table showing the equivalent number of runs required after each ball,
to equal the Sri Lankan total, for the remainder of the match assuming
that rain would conclude the game after that particular ball. One ball
before the rain interruption began, South Africa scored the requisite
number of runs shown on the table. On the next ball it appeared that
the batsmen could take a run but they decided not to take a risk,
believing that their table showed the number of runs to win, not to
tie. Thus the match ended in a tie, and South Africa lost all
mathematical chance of proceeding to the Super Sixes.