ICC World Cup 2019
Part 29 - 2007 Hat trick for Australia
Read previous post of this blog series. Please check the below links
West Indies may be the winner of first two world cups. But they got the honour of hosting ICC world cup after 32 years in 2007 only. The small Island just below the United States became the first ever small country host the world cup alone. After winning three world cups and two consecutive Australia aimed for hat trick. While other teams also looks stronger when compared to their previous years. South Africa, Sri lanka, India and New Zealand looks bit stronger than before. More over just before the world cup Australia made a history of scoring 400+ runs at ODI. Aussie scored 434 runs against South Africa. But the Proteas broke the record in the same match itself by chasing the targeted runs and scored 438 runs at the end of 50 overs. Now South Africa gave an open challenge to Australia in this world cup. But lot of unexpected twists happened in this tournament.
Two teams were added extra in this world cup. Ireland and Bermuda. Scotalnd replaced Namibia from the previous world cup. Totally 16 teams were divided into four groups like each contains four. The top two from each team will qualify for Super Eight from them top four will enter semi finals. The Carribean players were so hopeful in this tournament as they were the hosts. But South Africa looks stronger to lift the trophy. But they have to cross Australia to achieve that. Even India looks stronger after 2003 finals. They had lot of young speeds and a best wicket keeper. But what happened to them is the twist of this world cup.
Participated Countries:
Fourteen teams participated in the tournament. They were equally divided into to Pool A and B. Top three from each pool will play at Super Six stage. Each team has to play with remaining teams from other pool. It means 3 matches for each team. Then top four will qualify for semi.
Group A:
Australia, South Africa, Scotland and Netherland
Group B:
India, Srilanka, Bangladesh and Bermuda
Group C:
New Zealand, England, Kenya and Canada
Group D:
Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland
It looks like each group having two strong team and two small team. Dont know for what purpose they kept like that. Rather than they may play with only top 8 teams. But the result from group matches was too different from what they expected.
League Round:
From Group A, the strongest Australia and strongest South Africa qualified for Super Eight. Australia won all the matches and scored 300+ in all the matches. Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting and Clarke scored nearly 90% of the aussie's total score. South Africa lost only against Australia and came as second. Netherland registered their second win in this world cup against Scotalnd. Aussie and Protea registered a big win against Netherland by means of runs 221 and 229 difference respectively.
From Group B, Sri lanka won all the matches and finished at top of the group. Bangladesh registered two wins and came as second. Yes, in the very first match itself Bangladesh beat India. After the loss against Bangladesh, India kicked the powerless Bermuda. India scored the first ever 400+ runs in world cup and third in ODI next to Aussie and South africa. Both Sehwagh and Ganguly scored century and 83 runs in that match. But they to sri lanka at last match and left the tournament. Bermuda's cameo in world cup ends at group stage itself without a win.
In Group C, last year surprise semi finalist kenya came as third with one win against Canada. New zealand finished as top with 3 wins and England as second with two wins. Canada lost all the matches and left the tournament.
As like Group B, one more big team is eliminated from world cup in group stage itself. They were none other than the neighbour of Indians, Pakistanis. From the group of death West Indies and Ireland came as first and second. Pakistan lost against Ireland and left the world cup. Zimbabwe didnt get any victory as the match against Ireland was called off and the points shared equally among the teams.
Super Eight:
Eight teams were qualified for the Super Eight stage. Each team have to play with other 6 teams from other groups. At the end top four will qualify for semi finals. Once again Australia won all the matches and enter semi finals as unbeatable team. Srilanka and New Zealand won 5 out of 6 match except Australia and finish as second and third in Super Eight stage. South Africa won 4 matches and finished as fourth.England, West Indies, Bangladesh and Ireland left the tournament. In Super Eight also Ireland gave surprise to Bangladesh and Bangladesh gave surprise to the strongest South Africa.
Semi Finals:
Australia and South Africa played the first semi finals. Fans expected a high score match like 400+ chase match. But it went as low scoring game. South Africa went all out for 149 runs. Shaun tait and Mcgrath took 4 and 3 wickets respectively. Gibbs and Kemp alone scored 30+ runs. Australia chased the small target comfortably and qualified for finals. Once again Clarke nailed it with a half century and takes Australia home.
Sri lanka played against New Zealand at second semi. Lankans bat first and scored 289 runs with Jayawardena century and Tharanga half century. But New Zealand failed to chase the target and went all out for 208 runs. Muthiah Muralidharan took 4wickets from the 8 overs he bowled and conceded 31 runs only. New Zealand satisfied with semi finals again.
Finals:
Its consecutive fourth time that Asian country gonna play at world cup finals against Australia. 1996 Sri lanka won against Australia. But 1999 and 2003 Pakistan and India lost at finals. Australia waiting for to take a revenge for 1996 world cup finals and they did it. Australia decided to bat first after the toss. Before the 1st innings rain interrupted the play and the overs was reduced into 38 overs each side. If its Ricky Ponting for India at 2003 finals, Adam Gilchrist became nightmare for Sri lanka in 2007 finals. Gilly scored a destructive 149 runs from 104 balls with 13 boundaries and 8 sixes. Because of him Australia scored 281 runs at 38 overs.
Srillanka chase was not upto the expected. They keep on losing wickets,at one end Jayasuriya trying to save them. But he failed for 63 runs. Sri lanka scored only 215 runs for 8 wickets loss at 36 overs. Sangakkara scored a half century but not enough to win the game. Rain interrupted again and the match was score calculated by DL method. Australia won without any argument by 53 runs and became champions for the fourth time.
Lot of records created from the Australian side. They became the first team to win four world cups. Aussie became the first team became hat trick world cup champions. Ricky Ponting equals the record of Clive Lloyd as a captain to win two world cups and defended title too. Over all third world cup for him.
Most Runs: Mathew Hayden (Aus) with 658 runs
Most Wickets: Glenn Mcgrath(Aus), Shaun Tait (Aus) & Mutiah Muralidharan (SL) with 23 wickets
Interesting Moments:
1. Malinga's Four for Four
We heard lot of Hat trick wickets in ODI cricket as well as in World cup. But Malinga took Four wickets from four balls and created a new record in world cricket. He achieved this feet in a match against South Africa at Super Eight stage. South Africa chasing the 210 runs target set by Lankas. At one Soth Africa were 206/5 from 44.4 overs. But Lasith Malinga completely changed the match at that moment. He took Shaun Pollock and Hall at 5th and 6th ball of 45th over. Then he took Kallis and Ntini in 1st and 2nd ball of 47th over. But the required runs was 2 at that time. Peterson scored a boundary and took South Africa home safely.
2. Bob Woolmer death
Pakistan left the tournament at group stage itself. But their coach Bob Woolmer also left the world in this tournament. Suspiciously he was dead at his room. Still cant able to find the reason for his death. It happened just a day after Pakistan lost against Ireland. His death mystery went unresolved. Remember this Bob Woolmer was the coach of South African team at 1999 world cup and caught for giving instruction to the captain via earpiece.
2. H Gibbs 6,6,6,6,6,6
During a league match against Netherland, South African batsman H Gibbs became the first ever batsman in International cricket to score 6 sixes in 6 six balls in an over. The unlucky bowler was Daan Van Bunge from Netherland, Gibbs send all the balls to six in that over and created a new history in International cricket. Gary Sobers achieved this feet in first class match and Ravi Shashtri achieved this in Domestic Ranji Trophy. Later Yuvraj Singh scored 6 sixes in an over in 2007 T20 world cup match against England.
Thanks for sharing this useful information. Check out the ICC T20 World Cup Winners list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply.. keep supporting us.....
DeleteHey, that's great post you've shared. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThe market is overwhelmed with the availability of numerous Fantasy Sports Platforms. And we all know about the popularity of cricket among Indians. ICC T20 World Cup is one of the most exciting formats of the game.
T20 ICC World Cup
Along with providing a great platform to play more than 5 Fantasy Sports, Vision11 is also providing such informative blogs. You can say it's a treat for all the sports fans and fantasy cricket users. Vision11
ReplyDelete