Do you remember the 1999 Cricket World Cup match between Australia and West Indies? Do you find any similarity between that game and India’s game against England in the current World Cup?
In 1999, Steve Waugh deliberately played a slow inning along with Michael Bevan against West Indies so that Australia can reach in the super six stages with 2 points by eliminating their neighbours New Zealand.
Australia wanted to stop New Zealand, because of the peculiar workings of the Super Six. The teams who qualify carry through results against the opponents who go through with them. Because Australia beat West Indies but lost to New Zealand, they want the team they beat to qualify.
Chasing just 111 runs, Australia were 62 for four half-way through the 20th over, and a packed crowd at Manchester suddenly came to life. Utterly undeterred by a chorus of jeering and booing, the two Australians blocked half-volleys, left deliveries wide of off-stump alone and turned down any possible singles.
Waugh played 73 balls for his 19 runs, while Bevan played 69 balls for his 20, a strike rate of below 30 for both of them. (Watch the video)
| Group B | Played | Won | Lost | NR | Tied | Points | Net RR | PCF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 5 | 4 | 1 | – | – | 8 | 0.51 | 4 |
| Australia | 5 | 3 | 2 | – | – | 6 | 0.73 | 0 |
| New Zealand | 5 | 3 | 2 | – | – | 6 | 0.58 | 2 |
| West Indies | 5 | 3 | 2 | – | – | 6 | 0.50 | |
| Bangladesh | 5 | 2 | 3 | – | – | 4 | -0.52 | |
| Scotland | 5 | – | 5 | – | – | 0 | -1.93 |
Points: 2 – Win, 1 – Tie, 1 – No result
PCF: Points Carried Forward – the number of points the top three teams in each group carry through to the Super 6 stage, from matches against the other top two sides.
In the case of Dhoni, India losing the match against England has dented Pakistan’s hope to reach the semi-final of World Cup 2019.
India required 71 runs to win in the last 31 balls when Jadhav came out to bat with Dhoni; the pair added only 39 runs. They played seven dot balls, scored 20 singles and hit three fours and a six. The approach of Dhoni and Jadhav was beyond explanation which was admitted by the former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly on air.
This hasn’t happened for the first time in Indian cricket history. In 1994, against West Indies, in Kanpur, Manoj Prabhakar and Nayan Mongia surrendered the match to West Indies when they needed 63 runs to win in 57 balls, added just 16 runs in 9 overs. BCCI later banned both for the rest of the tri-series. Chetan Sharma and Vijay Yadav replaced them. India won the final against West Indies by 72 runs at Kolkata.
In the famous desert storm chase, because of Tendulkar’s absolute genius innings, India qualified for the finals against Australia at Sharjah in 1998. However, Tendulkar was not satisfied with only qualifying in the finals. He decided to go for the win but got out when the team required just 34 runs to win off 18 balls. The next batsmen, Laxman and Kanitkar, added only eight runs in those remaining overs. It is still not clear why didn’t they go for the victory.
In 2009, it was alleged that the Pakistan team deliberately lost to Australia in Champions Trophy to keep India out of contention of reaching the semi-final. At that time MS Dhoni was Indian captain. Today he batted in the last few overs, minimized Pakistan’s chances to reach the semis of World Cup 2019.
