1996 - World Cup of belief in Spin

The one day cricket action started picking up momentum and slowly but steadily colors were replacing the white attire ,cricket was becoming more of an entertainment and tradition was slowly being abandoned for the benefit of the TV and less for the spectator at the venue. 

The World Cup moved back to the sub continent and after the damp WC of 1992, atleast it was moving to more favourable weather. However the safety concerns in Sri Lanka made Australia, West Indies forfeit matches by not traveling there ,SL were undoubtedly disappointed since they wanted to prove a point by hosting a trouble free event. 

India were again led by Azhar playing his 3rd World Cup and the team was again packed with the usual variety of spin and pace. Srinath, Prasad and Prabhakar were potent with the new ball, Kumble miserly and Raju added the left armer angle.  However some shocks for India were in store against SL when playing their round robin game.  India had posted an above average total of 270+ in the match with SRT easily making a century  at the small Kotla but Kaluwitharana and Jayasuriya had other ideas.  They tore into the Indian bowling especially Manoj Prabhakar and repeatedly the ball was flying over the in field .  This was pinch hitting at its best and Ranatunga had made one of the best opening pairs out of average players in the middle order.  The pressure gone , SL romped home winners and the whole world started taking SL seriously.

Since there were minnows like Netherlands, UAE, Kenya , the World Cup started picking up momentum only at the QF stage when there was an  India Pakistan match at Bangalore.  Surprisingly Wasim Akram pulled out of the match citing injury and they were led by Aamir Sohail.  Tongues started wagging in India and Pakistanis the next day were throwing stones at Akram's residence. India were brimming with confidence and made a not so imposing total .  It was left to the bowlers to make the intial dents and build the pressure which they did exceedingly well.  I still remember the pumped up Indian side aided by the partisan Bangalore crowd which cheered every run of the home team and jeered every run of the Pakistanis.  I was equally excited watching on the television and when Salim Malik and Inzamam fell , I believed India were on the road to their second World Cup win.  Every Indian felt that beating Pakistan was the ultimate achievement and probably the team didnt bother winning after that.

The other QFs were equally interesting , West Indies against South Africa which was decided by one man Brian Lara and it was a calculated assault and exposed South Africa's lack of variety in the bowling .  Australia on the other hand had made short work of New Zealand despite Chris Harris scoring one of his best knocks and the ever classy Mark Waugh contributing to the Australia cause. 

The stage was set for old rivalries to be renewed when Australia met the West Indies.   I was home early that day with tooth ache and watched the first ball which was a perfect in swinger  from Ambrose to Mark Waugh who tried to flick it to mid wicket and was caught plumb in front . Australia had lost almost half of their batsman without much on the board and it was left to Law and Bevan to grind the bowling and Bevan nudged , prodded and hoicked in the end to get Australia to some respectability and belief that they could pull it off with  the never say die Australian spirit.  West Indies as usual had done all the hard work and were cruising but some ill luck and cramps for Chanderpaul accompanied by some good death bowling and horrible batting saw them lose.  West Indies had scored all the points but Australia as is their wont had won the moments that mattered and the match.

The first semi final  had the 2 host nations fighting for a place in the final  and India surprisingly elected to field when they knew that Eden would become a mine field with the late night dew.  Probably it was justified when the intial wickets fell and Eden had probably more people in unreserved seating who were cheering every wicket.  The team probably didnt realise that SL was doing exceedingly well with the run rate and there were clawing back through Aravinda and Ranatunga.  Aravinda didnt bother much about the crowd or the lack of cheering and proceeded to play a Richards kind of knock.   The total was a good one and made better by the failure of Sidhu at the top.  When SRT and Manjrekar were playing, it was just a question of seeing through the overs and getting the runs.  But suddenly the pitch started behaving like a minefield  with SRTs dismissal and  when Azhar and Manjrekar also fell in quick succession , the hope began receding. 

Srinath was a pinch hitting failure and the Indian batting was crumbling to Jayasuriya who was pushing the ball through with some assistance from the pitch . The dew, fog combination was also not enough for the batsmen to get some runs against the spinners.  When the Indian batting imploded and the 2Ks at the crease, the crowd decided that it was enough and decided to interrupt the match.  That they didnt have faith in the batting abilities of Kumble and the efforts of Kambli was understandable since one had never seen Kumble bat and Kambli was not looking like getting India out of the self created dark tunnel.  Indian chances were buried in the black soil of Eden, houses of the players were stoned and several careers cut short.  

This didnt deter Sri Lanka from traveling to Pakistan for the final against a super good Australia.  The final was the never say die spirit of the underdogs against the professionalism of the champions.  2 captains who led their teams with great poise and instilled confidence in the team to a point that in commentators language " Something had to give ".   A final has always the key moments which sometimes go your way ( the Luck factor ) or individual brilliance which galvanises the team to pull of something spectacular.   SL bowled decently well except for their medium pacers and did not deviate from their well defined formula of strangling the batsmen and then allowing the batsmen to commit hara kiri.  

When chasing , around 50 runs can be added to the total because of pressure of chasing and when Jayasuriya and Kalu fell trying the big shots , it looked as if Australia was in the drivers seat.  Gurusinha had failed in the previous match and was desperate to make amends and was complementing Aravinda who played spin and pace with equal conviction. The cover drives of Aravinda were gorgeous and Ranatunga put in the finishing touches.   Australia was caught unawares by the planning of the chase and probably didnt see the Australian coach on the other side.  The great Warne was rendered ineffective partly by the due on the ground and Ranatunga Aravinda combination who  have oodles of time at their disposal to play the dab and the sweep.  Many would say that the Mark Waugh over cost Australia the match but Srilankans were continously chipping away at the total and reducing it to manageable proportions where the pressure of the final became non existent.

The take home moments of this World Cup were the refusal of the teams to play in Sri Lanka ,  the collapse at the Eden,  West Indies embracing defeat against Kenya ( there were completely hopeless ) and Australia from a winning position,  India crumbling with the Eden pitch against SL,  Manoj Prabhakar reduced to bowling off spin when Kalu and Sanath were going berserk , the meticulous Sri Lanka who had clinical strategies for each match.  Quite a long World Cup in which many matches were forgotten as soon as they were played but for Sri Lankans & Australians a world cup to remember.