After an absence of 12 years, the World Cup returned to the home of cricket, England in 1999 which eventually proved to be beginning of Australia's total dominance of the world of cricket. Netherlands also had a chance to host a couple of games which intended to bring Europe onto the cricketing map as well. A total of 12 teams took part in the tournament which had the makings of a true mega event.
The teams were divided into two groups and the top three teams from each group won a birth in the super six round from where the top 4 teams would be facing each other in the semi finals. Pakistan and South Africa topped their respective groups and during the super sixes round after hard fought matches, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa secured a place in the semi-final. The first match was a repeat of the 1992 Semi-final between the men in green and Kiwis and the out come was similar to the one 7 years earlier. Pakistan were the expected winners and they strolled past New Zealand into the final of a cricket world cup for the second time. The other Semi final, is probably the most thrilling match that has ever taken place in the world cup. Chasing a relatively small target, the Proteas began the run chase with a lot of confidence and it seemed that they would be facing the Pakistanis in the final as anticipated by a lot of experts prior to the match. But nature had something scripted for today, an inspirational spell by Shane Warne and excellent pressure applied by Steve Waugh's captaincy resulted the match in a historic draw and Australia moved into the finals on the account of their victory earlier in the group tie.
The final proved to be, against the expectations of many, one sided affair and bowling first Australia pinned Pakistan down for a very small total which they eventually ended up chasing very easily. The Aussies ended up lifting their second World Cup and Pakistan walked away with nothing but disappointment.
Lance Klusener (SA) was selected as a unanimous man of the series with Rahul Dravid (IND) ending up scoring the highest number of runs with 461 and Geoff Allot (NZ) and Shane Warne (AUS) sharing 20 wickets piece to lead the list of the most wicket taking bowlers
The teams were divided into two groups and the top three teams from each group won a birth in the super six round from where the top 4 teams would be facing each other in the semi finals. Pakistan and South Africa topped their respective groups and during the super sixes round after hard fought matches, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa secured a place in the semi-final. The first match was a repeat of the 1992 Semi-final between the men in green and Kiwis and the out come was similar to the one 7 years earlier. Pakistan were the expected winners and they strolled past New Zealand into the final of a cricket world cup for the second time. The other Semi final, is probably the most thrilling match that has ever taken place in the world cup. Chasing a relatively small target, the Proteas began the run chase with a lot of confidence and it seemed that they would be facing the Pakistanis in the final as anticipated by a lot of experts prior to the match. But nature had something scripted for today, an inspirational spell by Shane Warne and excellent pressure applied by Steve Waugh's captaincy resulted the match in a historic draw and Australia moved into the finals on the account of their victory earlier in the group tie.
The final proved to be, against the expectations of many, one sided affair and bowling first Australia pinned Pakistan down for a very small total which they eventually ended up chasing very easily. The Aussies ended up lifting their second World Cup and Pakistan walked away with nothing but disappointment.
Lance Klusener (SA) was selected as a unanimous man of the series with Rahul Dravid (IND) ending up scoring the highest number of runs with 461 and Geoff Allot (NZ) and Shane Warne (AUS) sharing 20 wickets piece to lead the list of the most wicket taking bowlers
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