Close Encounters

[Zelig]

1975 - Pakistan vs WI Group match, WI won At Birmingham, June 11. West Indies won by one wicket, the winning run being scored off the fourth ball of the last over. A magnificent match hung in the balance until the end and the West Indies could not have been confident when their eighth wicket fell at 166 and their ninth at 203. The last pair, Murray and Roberts, who came together in the 46th over, scored the necessary 64 runs for victory. The Pakistan batsmen followed Majid's example, punishing anything not on a length and going boldly for their strokes, but Mushtaq and Wasim Raja were unfortunate to play on when both threatened to dominate the bowling. The West Indies batsmen showed almost indecent haste and, with the exception of Lloyd and Murray, lacked the patience to build a major innings. Murray's brand of discipline and the courage of Roberts eventually carried them to victory. Tom Graveney named Sarfraz Man of the Match. 1979 - England vs NZ, Semi Final, Eng won At Manchester, June 20. England won by 9 runs. A wonderful match played in glorious sunshine before an almost capacity crowd of 22,000 ended with New Zealand covering themselves with glory but just failing to get to Lord's for the final. All day long they fought nobly but the fortunes of the game continually fluctuated after Burgess had sent in England to bat after winning the toss once more. The capable New Zealand attack, spearheaded by the fiery Hadlee, tied down most of the England batsmen. Boycott, who survived a difficult chance to the wicketkeeper off the second ball he received, from Troup, fell to a smart catch at third slip in Hadlee's fifth over. Larkins, preferred to Edmonds, tried to force the pace, only to be taken at extra cover. Brearley, content to defend, was making slow progress, but Gooch, in his most confident mood, set about establishing the innings. There were further shocks for England when Brearley, having made 53 out of 96, cut Coney to Lees behind the stumps and Gower, going for a second run, was beaten by Cairns' splendid long return to the bowler. There followed a bold stand between Gooch and Botham who put on 47 in ten overs. Gooch, stepping forward, drove McKechnie high over the sightscreen for 6. A low ball dismissed Botham as he attempted a mighty hook and Gooch's fine display ended when he deflected a widish ball against his stumps. Gooch was named Man of the Match. Fortunately for England, Brearley had put in Randall at number seven and he played neatly, seldom attempting anything ambitious. Taylor calmly put Cairns over long on for 6 and England snatched 25 runs from the last three overs. Two left-handers, Wright and Edgar, began New Zealand's task of scoring 222 to win in masterly fashion, putting on 47 in sixteen overs before Old had Edgar leg-before. Then Boycott, round the wicket, removed Howarth leg-before with a full toss that the batsman aimed to sweep towards square leg. Wright kept New Zealand moving the right way until he succumbed to some brilliant fielding by Randall from deep square leg. Burgess, too, was run out, but New Zealand were not finished yet. Lees lifted Hendrick over mid-on for 6 and Cairns hoisted Botham even further before Hendrick removed them both. With Willis lame, and Botham and Hendrick also limping, it was touch and go, but with 14 wanted from the last over, sent down by Botham, New Zealand went out of the World Cup with their flag flying. 1983 - England vs NZ, Group match, NZ won At Birmingham, June 15. New Zealand won by two wickets. Such a result seemed unlikely when England, early in the day, were making a confident start, but the pitch was not entirely consistent in bounce and an experiment with Botham at No. 3 proved unsuccessful. Only Gower, with an immaculate 92 not out from 96 balls, contributed much after an opening stand of 63 between Fowler and Tavaré, and he could not stop the loss of the last three wickets for 1 run with 4.4 overs unused. England's score seemed adequate when Willis removed Turner and Edgar with only 3 runs scored, and at 75 for four New Zealand were still fighting an uphill battle. But while Coney held one end, his partners, especially Hadlee, gave him support which kept New Zealand close to the required scoring-rate. With two wickets left, they needed 4 runs off the last over, or 3 if they still had a wicket intact. Off the fifth ball, with the scores level, Bracewell struck a 4 to settle the issue. Man of the Match: J. V. Coney 1987 - India vs Australia, Curtain raiser, Oz won At Madras, October 9. Australia won by 1 run. Toss: India. Kapil Dev's sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match. One of Jones's two sixes, in his 39 from 35 balls, had been signalled as four; but between innings Kapil concurred with the Australians' insistence that the ball cleared the boundary. That India's target was increased by 2 seemed insignificant when Gavaskar (32 balls, one six, six fours), Srikkanth (83 balls, seven fours) and Sidhu (79 balls, five sixes, four fours) sent them racing past 200 for the loss of only two wickets. McDermott's first four overs went for 31 runs, but he came back strongly to whip out the middle order. Even so, India, with four wickets in hand, needed just 15 from the last four overs; when the last over began, the requirement was 6, with the last man, Maninder Singh, taking strike. He managed two 2s, but along with his sang-froid went his off stump. Australia's innings, like India's, had been built around the top-order batsmen. On a pitch of little pace or bounce, Marsh and Boon put on 100 at almost 5 an over. Jones played quite beautifully, but the middle order lost the initiative. Marsh, in 95-degree heat and high humidity, batted more than three hours and hit a six and seven fours in 141 balls. 1987 - West Indies vs Pakistan, Group match, Pak won At Lahore, October 16. Pakistan won by one wicket. Toss: West Indies. Another of the nail-biting finishes for which this World Cup was becoming renowned saw Pakistan finish their first round of group matches with an unbeaten record. Yet it could not have been closer. With their last pair at the wicket they wanted 14 from the last over, to be bowled - as in West Indies' match against England - by Walsh. He went for 112622, all but the second single scored by Qadir, whose straight-hit six raised a crowd of more than 50,000 to new heights of ecstasy. When 110 for five in the 35th over, Pakistan looked out of it. However, Imran and Yousuf (49 balls, seven fours) added 73 in eleven overs, and with three overs remaining the target was 21 with four wickets in hand. Yousuf, who had enjoyed at least three lives, was finally caught in Walsh's penultimate over; Patterson's final over brought two wickets while only 2 runs were added. So came the finale. Walsh, off the very last ball, could have run out Jaffer for backing up too soon, but good sportsmanship prevailed. In West Indies' innings, Simmons made an impressive début, hitting 50 from 51 balls with eight fours, but only Richards after him played a commanding innings. Imran came back to dismiss Richards and Harper with successive balls and swept away the tail. Qadir, without a wicket, was saving his magic for later. 1992 - Australia v India, Group Match, Oz won The result turned on the rule that was to dog the competition. Rain cut 15 minutes and three overs when India were 45 from 16.2, but their target dropped by only two runs, because Australia's three least productive overs were removed. In fine weather earlier, Kapil Dev and Prabhakar had bowled well to restrict Australia, until Jones launched his 109-ball innings with a six and a four. India also began slowly, with Shastri impeded by a knee injury. But Azharuddin's wristy strokeplay collected 93 from 103 balls, and Manjrekar (42 balls) hit three fours and a six. The lower order approached the final assault gallantly; 13 runs were required from Moody's final over, and More struck the first two to the fine-leg boundary. The next hit his middle stump. Prabhakar took a single, but was run out on the fifth ball. Needing four from the last delivery, Srinath swung; Waugh dropped the ball just inside the boundary, but threw it in to Australia's acting wicket-keeper, Boon. Raju was beaten returning for the third run which would have levelled the scores. Man of the Match: D. M. Jones. Attendance: 11,734. 1996 - Australia v WI, Semi Final, Oz won West Indies pulled off an extraordinary defeat, losing eight wickets in the final 50 minutes. After 41 overs, they were 165 for two, needing 43 from the last nine; Lara had gone for a run-a-ball 45, but Chanderpaul was heading for a century and Richardson for a glorious conclusion to his captaincy. Once Chanderpaul - hampered by cramp - fell, however, the innings swerved out of control. Big hitters Harper and Gibson were promoted in the order but their wickets, in quick succession, placed more pressure on the recognised batsmen, Adams and the out-of-form Arthurton, who soon followed. Australia were on top for the first time in the game and a devastating three-over spell from Warne culled three for six. But Richardson was still there to face the last over, from Fleming. When he struck the first delivery for four, West Indies required six from five balls, with two wickets left, and victory was in his grasp. The final fatal misjudgment was to set off for a single, for even if Ambrose had got home, it was Richardson who needed the strike. In fact, Ambrose was given out on a TV replay. Last man Walsh heaved at his first ball and was bowled. Taylor had controlled the closing stages perfectly but said afterwards that West Indies had won 95 per cent of the match. The game had seemed dead after 40 minutes, when Australia, electing to bat on one of the grassier pitches of the tournament, were 15 for four. Ambrose and Bishop had fired out both Waughs, Ponting, who scored 102 in their last meeting, and Taylor himself for a combined four runs, and a rout threatened. But Law and Bevan batted with determination and growing confidence to add 138 in 32 overs and the later order pushed the total past 200. Though Warne dismissed Browne with his first ball, West Indies seemed to have the task well in hand until panic overtook them. Man of the Match: S. K. Warne. 1999 - India vs Zim,Group match, Zim won At Leicester, May 19. Zimbabwe won by three runs. Toss: India. A tumultuous crowd witnessed the closest match of the tournament so far. India needed only nine from two overs when Olonga returned to the attack. His previous three overs had cost 17, as he lost his run-up and bowled some spectacular wides and a beamer. But this time Singh was caught at cover off his second ball, Srinath yorked with his fifth, and Prasad l. b. w. to the last. Zimbabwe had played two, won two; India played two, lost two. Zimbabwe made slow progress with the bat, except when Andy Flower and Campbell were together, but haywire bowling donated 51 extras, a fifth of the total. The resulting over-rate was so slow that India's reply was docked a crucial four overs. Not that Zimbabwe were misers, either: there were 90 extras in the match, a World Cup record, but one which lasted only 24 hours. India started well enough, bringing up 44 in the seventh over before Dravid fell. Ramesh, replacing Tendulkar who had flown back to Mumbai to attend his father's funeral, and Jadeja added 99 before Ramesh holed out to mid-on. The middle order rattled along and, when Srinath lofted two huge sixes, India seemed home and dry until Olonga's over. Mongia made five dismissals to equal the one-day international record. Man of the Match: G. W. Flower. Attendance: 4,005. 1999 - Australia vs SA, Semi Finals, Drawn Toss: South Africa. This was not merely the match of the tournament: it must have been the best one-day international of the 1,483 so far played. The essence of the one-day game is a close finish, and this was by far the most significant to finish in the closest way of all - with both teams all out for the same score. But it was a compressed epic all the way through, and it ended in a savage twist. The tie meant that South Africa, for the third World Cup in a row, failed to reach the final despite making much of the early running. The crucial fact was that Australia finished higher than them in the Super Six table, and that was determined by the obscurity of net run-rate. Many spectators were left baffled. Klusener's brawn had powered South Africa to the brink of the final but, when he got there, his brain short-circuited. Only he could have smashed and grabbed 31 runs off 14 balls, cutting a daunting target down to a doddle: one needed off four balls, Klusener himself on strike, and a decent, experienced tailender at the other end in Donald. The bowler, Fleming, had only one thing going for him: he had bowled the final over that beat West Indies in the 1996 World Cup semi-final. Having let Klusener pummel consecutive fours to level the scores, he tightened up. Steve Waugh, knowing a tie would be enough, set a field that gave new meaning to the phrase a ring saving one. Klusener thumped the ball straight, and Donald, backing up too far, would have been run out if Lehmann had hit the stumps. The scare should have been a warning. But Klusener then repeated his straight biff and charged. Donald grounded his bat, dropped it, and finally set off, while the Australians were demonstrating the benefits of a recent visit to a bowling alley: Mark Waugh, at mid-on, flicked the ball to Fleming, who rolled it to Gilchrist, who broke the wicket, and South African hearts. The rest of the match was studded with outstanding performances. When Australia batted, Pollock, finally finding the edge, was magnificently incisive. Donald twice took two wickets in an over. Steve Waugh and Bevan performed a repair job which showed first self-control, then controlled aggression. Kallis, carrying a stomach injury, bowled fast and tight, and held the batting together with a cool fifty. Above all, there was Shane Warne. The ball that bowled Gibbs was a miraculous replay of his most famous delivery, to Mike Gatting six years earlier. His first spell of eight overs went for only 12 runs. He pocketed three more wickets, and the match award. The game was the last as South Africa's coach for Bob Woolmer, whose blend of science and imagination had produced a 73 per cent success rate in one-day internationals. He deserved better than to go out on a technicality. Man of the Match: S. K. Warne. Attendance: 19,639. 2003 - SL vs SA, Group match, SL won At Durban, March 3, 2003 (day/night). Tied (D/L method). Toss: Sri Lanka. Sydney 1992, Edgbaston 1999, and now Durban 2003: South Africa have certainly acquired an unhappy knack of exiting World Cups in bizarre fashion. Late in the South African innings, with rain falling steadily, it had become a question of when - not if - Duckworth/Lewis would come into play. And so, when Boucher swung the penultimate ball of the 45th - and, as had begun to seem inevitable, final - over for six, he pumped his right fist, believing the job done. The last soggy ball of the match he pushed casually to leg, and stayed put. Crucially, though, the South Africans had misread the fine print: they had needed 229 to tie, when only a win would do. The match might not have happened at all. Sri Lanka disputed the interpretation of the rules for separating teams tied on points, and there was talk of them forfeiting the fixture, until the prospect of a fine and disqualification did wonders for obedience. Jayasuriya embodied such navel-gazing: when an over-cautious Atapattu declined an early single, he mooched back to his crease and was run out. Eschewing his habitual orthodoxy, Atapattu atoned with a superlative 124, adding 152 in 22 overs with the lyrical de Silva to hand the hosts a daunting task. Smith and Gibbs galloped away until Smith heaved de Silva's first ball to deep mid-wicket. Muralitharan bowled Gibbs behind his legs as the spinners made deep inroads, before Pollock and Boucher rallied. Their stand ended when Murali speculatively flicked the ball on to the stumps - and Pollock, after endless replays, was given out by what must have been a millimetre. Klusener laboured to a single off eight balls as the rain grew heavier, but had Boucher been given the right information, it might not have mattered. As it was, Sri Lanka progressed - and South Africa's world fell apart. Jayasuriya d****d an arm around Pollock's shoulders as they awaited the media inquisition, compassion supplanting his own relief, however briefly. Man of the Match: M. S. Atapattu. Attendance: 19,744. 2003 - WI vs SA, Curtain raiser, WI won At Cape Town, February 9, 2003 (day/night). West Indies won by three runs. Toss: West Indies. After the South African board's evangelical campaign and Olympic-standard opening ceremony the previous night (a world away from the half-hearted fiasco at Lord's four years earlier), the opening game needed to be great - and it was, thanks to a masterful performance from a great player. Unfortunately for the organisers, though, he was not South African. It was Lara: he lit up Newlands with a century that transformed a terrible West Indies start when Pollock reduced them to seven for two. Playing his first competitive innings since mysteriously falling ill in Sri Lanka five months earlier, Lara was almost out first ball when Kallis dropped a hard chance at second slip. At first he seemed to be over-cautious: it was 30 for two after 15 overs and still 67 for two after 25. But then he tore into Donald and Klusener with a bat as swift as a scimitar to reach 116 off 134 balls. With Powell and Sarwan scoring even more spectacularly - Pollock's penultimate over cost 23 runs - 110 came off the last ten, and West Indies amazed themselves by reaching 278. With one over docked because of their slow overrate, South Africa were up against it. But Kirsten held on, Boucher hit out and then came Klusener, dragging the bittersweet memories of the 1999 tournament with him. His bat still as broad, his jaw still as set, he set out to improve a World Cup average of 140.50. He might have gone when Collins carried a catch over the boundary, but when his fifth six took him to his fifty, South Africa were favourites. However, with four balls remaining and eight needed, Klusener was caught by Hooper at deep midwicket. He and Boje failed to cross, leaving the tailenders exposed to Drakes. Man of the Match: B. C. Lara. Attendance: 24,180. 2007 - SA v SL, Super 8's, SA won 2007 - SL vs England, Super 8's, SL won 2007 - England vs WI, Super 8's, Eng won 2011 - ???? My predictions: Bangla vs SA. Last group match for both the teams and they could be in a situation "winner goes through". It could be one nail-bitter. India vs SL. Whenever it happens! England vs Australia: If at all it happens! Last match of Oz: They'll fight it out until they bow down. PS> Almanack reports - courtesy CI :icflove:

[Sir_Afridi]

SA vs Aus in 1999 was the greatest World Cup game ever.

[Watson87]

1999 - Australia vs SA, Semi Finals, Drawn - Best ODI match ever, low scoring match and the way the Aussies celebrated was a joyous day for me. Donald what an idiot lol This World Cup. India vs Australia will be a close encounter. Maybe in Semis Pakistan vs India. But India will win as usual Australia vs England - agree with u on that part

[Jersey #10]

SA vs Aus in 1999 was the greatest World Cup game ever.

++ The second best for me has to be the 2003 IndoPak game

[maniac]

That was very one-sided

[Sachin=GOD]

most of the "must-win" matches for Choke-Africa in World Cups are close encounters :hysterical:

[gaurav92]

Ind Zim in '99 was :((