Pipped at the post

India and Australia had made a habit of playing close matches in the World Cup. In 1987, Australia had beaten India by 1 run when Maninder Singh had been bowled off the penultimate ball of the match with two runs to win. In 1992, India fell short by one run again but this time they also had the rain to blame.

Batting first after winning the toss, Australia had a shaky start and were 2/31 when David Boon and Dean Jones came together. Jones once again played an innings of substance against India notching up 90 off just 108 balls and forged meaningful partnerships with Boon (43), S Waugh (29) and Moody (25) to take the Australian total to a respectable 237. Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar (3/41 each) bowled well for India.

The Indian reply got off to a slow start thanks to a suspect knee for Ravi Shastri but a bigger problem for India came in the 17th over when the heavens opened up. India was 45 for 2 at the time and the 15 minutes lost changed the Indian target by just two runs, although 3 overs were reduced. Mohammed Azharuddin (93) led the charge for India but he could not find a partner to stay with him long enough to make a big impact. When Azhar fell, India still needed 42 runs in not many balls. Kiran More played a cameo of 14 (8b) but when he fell, India needed 5 to win and there were only four balls available. It finally came down to 4 off the last ball and Javagal Srinath on strike.

A wild hoick by Srinath made it all the way to the boundary in the air, but Waugh dropped it. India needed to run three to tie by Waugh's return found Venkatapathy Raju just short of his ground and once again, Australia had pulled a rabbit out of the hat!

Yet again, the strange nature of the rain laws that took away the three least productive overs in the Australian innings was showcased. The rain rules in 1992 clearly put the pressure on the team chasing in an attempt to keep the game exciting but they also skewed the odds unfairly. India couldn't really recover from this and eventually failed to make it to the next stage. Another great game of cricket, but India was on the losing side, again.

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Published on Mar 8, 2007