The 1999 Cricket World Cup


the seventh edition of the tournament, was
hosted primarily by England, but Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the
Netherlands also hosted some games. The World Cup was won by
Australia, who beat Pakistan by 8 wickets at Lord's Cricket Ground in
London. New Zealand and South Africa were the other semifinalists.
The format of the world cup was as follows: The 12 contestants were
divided into 2 groups, in each of which teams played each other in the
league stage. The top three from each group advanced to the Super
Sixes, a new concept brought about in this World Cup, where each
qualifier from group A played with each qualifier from group B. The
teams also carried forward their points from games against each
qualifer from their group. The top four in the Super Sixes contested
the semifinals.Lance Klusener of South Africa was declared the Player
of the Tournament

Controversies in the Tournament:

A controversial new type of cricket ball, the white ‘Duke’ was
introduced for the first time in the 1999 World Cup. Despite claims
from makers British Cricket Balls Ltd that the balls behaved
identically to the red balls used in previous world cups [2], they
were proven to be harder and swing significantly more

Final Highlights:

1999 World Cup final was played between Pakistan and Australia. Start
of the match was delayed by 30 minutes due to morning rain. Pakistan
won the toss and elected to bat first. But Pakistan lost the wickets
at regular intervals and finally was allout for 132 in 39 Overs.
Later Adam Gilchrist slammed a quick fire 54 off 33 balls to seal the
victory for the Aussies in the 21st Over. Australia won by 8 wickets
(with 179 balls remaining) and became the winners of 1999 world cup.

Tournament Highlights:

The highlight 1996 World cup was Super-six match between Australia and
South Africa. South Africa own the toss and elected to bat first. With
the help of century form Gibbs (101) and Half-century from Cullinan
(50), SA posted mammoth total of 271/7 in their 50 overs.While
chasing, Aussies were reduced to 48/3 in the 11th over. As still over
200 runs has to be scored, it was thought to be curtains for Aussies
from the world cup. But Steve Waugh came up with a superb
century(120*) and not only won the match for Australia but also taken
the team to Semis. Gibbs dropped Steve Waugh when he was on 56, which
proved to be very costly for SA. Later Steve whispered to Gibbs " You
haven't dropped the catch, but the world cup".