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Of Spinners and World Cups


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Of Spinners and World Cups Once considered unsuitable, outdated, and unfashionable for One Day Internationals, spinners have become a very powerful force and have influenced many matches and tournaments none bigger than World Cups. Whether it was Warne?s match turning delivery to Gibbs in ?99 or the spectacular demolition of India by Jayasuriya in the ?96 semi final they have been beautiful to watch and have left an indelible impact on how the biggest cricket event has shaped out over the years. Here?s my pick for the five best performances by spinners in the World Cup: 5. Abdul Qadir (Pakistan) vs. England 1987 at Rawalpindi: Perhaps the first time in World Cup history that a spinner was used as a genuine attacking option. Imran Khan was a big proponent of having a wrist spinner in the side for their ability to break open the game in the middle overs. When the batting side is looking to consolidate and preserve wickets for the final slog, Imran Khan presented them with an invitation to attack. Chasing 240 to win, England had made a solid start seeing off the new ball threat of Wasim Akram when Qadir was introduced into the attack. He immediately provided the breakthrough by clean bowling Gooch. And when England seemed to have a platform ready for the final sprint at 141/2, Qadir once again was brought back into the attack. He responded superbly by bowling Robinson. At 205/4 with the dangerous Allan Lamb at the wicket, the game?s momentum shifted once again as Qadir trapped him leg before to expose the tail. He added the wicket of Downton to end up with superb figures of 4/31 and the era of attacking leg spinners was well and truly ushered in one day cricket. 4. Mushtaq Ahmed (Pakistan) vs. England 1992 at Melbourne: Five years later in a much bigger match, Imran Khan led Pakistan were eyeing the biggest moment of their cricket history. In a match remembered for ?those? Akram deliveries, Mushtaq Ahmed?s superb spell of leg spin is often forgotten. If Akram?s thunderbolts to Lamb and Lewis broke England?s back while chasing a formidable 250 for world cup glory, it was Mushtaq Ahmed?s googly to Hick and the quick wicket of Gooch which provided the initial body blows and put England well and truly on the backfoot from 59/2 to 69/4. The flight, loop, turn, and guile was too much for England?s side and when he returned to dismiss Dermot Reeve immediately after Fairbrother?s dismissal Pakistan were well and truly on course to World Cup glory. 3. Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) vs. India 1996 at Calcutta: Playing against a strong Indian side packed with some of the best players of spin of that time in Tendulkar, Siddhu, Manjrekar, Azharuddin, Kambli, and Jadeja, Sri Lanka pulled off a stunning performance of spin bowling led by the man whose reputation was more of a marauder of bowling attacks than a destructor of batting lineups. Chasing 252 to win on a difficult and deteriorating track, India were reasonably well placed at 98/1 with Tendulkar and Manjrekar playing solid cricket. But within a space of 3 overs, Jayasuriya removed both set batsmen and with Dharmasena getting Azharuddin at the other end, India were well and truly out of the game suddenly at 101/4. First he beat Tendulkar down the leg side to have him stumped and clean bowled Manjrekar. The body blows were too strong for India to bounce back and after adding Jadeja to his list of scalps, Jayasuriya finished with 3/12 before the ugly crowd behavior brought a premature end to the match with India tottering at 120/8 and knocked out the World Cup in front of the 100,000 strong biased crowd. There was no stopping the Lankans after this and a facile win over Australia in the final wrapped up a glorious chapter in Sri Lankan cricket history. 2. Shane Warne (Australia) vs. West Indies 1996 at Mohali: A day after Jayasuriya and cronies knocked India out of the World Cup saw Warne deliver the first of his multiple great World Cup performances. At 165/2 chasing 208 to win the game appeared a formality in the 42nd over. But after McGrath removed Chanderpaul and Harper in quick succession, the mystical Warne stepped in to make a fool of West Indian tactics of promoting lower order biffers to do a job which orthodox batting could have accomplished without breaking a sweat. Warne immediately removed Ottis Gibson and Jimmy Adams to leave West Indies struggling all of a sudden at 183/6. Allied with one of the better fast bowlers at the death, Fleming, Warne kept a tight line and length while making the ball turn under the lights to choke and strangle the life out of the West Indian innings. He added the wicket of Bishop to finish with 4/36 while a dumbfounded Richardson was left stranded at 49 contemplating the shock exit of his side. 1. Shane Warne (Australia) vs. South Africa 1999 at Birmingham: In arguably the greatest one day international ever, there were quite a few sterling performances by some of the best players of the 90s. Donald and Pollock?s immaculate fast bowling, Steve Waugh and Bevan?s gritty innings that got Australia to a fighting score, Kallis? solid back to the wall innings, and Klusner?s whirlwind cameo. In such a scenario, it would have been difficult to keep the greatest showman of all out of the game. And what a show he performed. At 48/0 South Africa were well and truly on course when Warne produced the best delivery of his one day career to clean bowl Gibbs and removed Kirsten and Cronje in quick succession as well. South Africa were suddenly tottering at 53/3 and became 61/4 when Warne?s stranglehold resulted in Cullinan?s run out. With the require run rate mounting after Kallis and Rhodes had consolidated, Pollock struck Warne for a six and four in his final spell. Warne responded by snuffing out Kallis in the same over to push South Africa to the brink. Klusner played a gem before the infamous mixup but Warne had done enough to be the standout performer in a match of multiple top notch performances. He bowled another great spell three days later to wrap up a successful World Cup campaign for the Aussies becoming the third player after Amarnath and DeSilva to win the man of the match awards in the semi final and final of the World Cup.

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