Mumbai : Nineth edition of the Cricket World Cup (men's ODI) was shifted to the Caribbean Islands with West Indies getting the chance of hosting it for the first time. Tragedy, upsets, controversies and criticisms marred the 2007 edition of the men's 50 overs cricket world cup.
A total of 16 teams participated in this world cup, they were split into 4 pools with the top two of each group moving into Super 8 round robin league stage and the top 4 of that league stage advancing to the last 4. Number 1 team on the super 8 league table is to clash with number 4 team while number 2 & 3 was scheduled to clash in the other semis.
Pool A consisted of Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands(Holland) and Scotland. India, Sri Lanka, Bermuda and Bangladesh were placed in Pool B --- that turned out as the pool of death. England, New Zealand, Canada and Kenya made up Pool C while the hosts West Indies, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Pakistan were placed in Pool D.
The greatest upset came on March 17, when Bangladesh piped India and Ireland stunned Pakistan these results paved the way for the exits of the two high profile teams in the first round itself. Pakistan for the first time since 1975 were eliminated in the first round itself. More disaster were in waiting when Sri Lanka pierced the last nail in India's coffin by outclassing the 1983 champions. It was a disastrous start for Pakistan as well who went down tamely to the hosts in the cup opener.
As expected South Africa and defending champions Australia (from Pool A) qualified for the super 8 stage while Pool B proved to be a shocker with Bangladesh along with Sri Lanka qualifying for the last 8, England along with the Kiwis expectedly reaching the last eight from Pool C while Pool D providing another upset with Ireland qualifying for the last eight along with the hosts West Indies.
The group stage match between Australia and the Proteas proved to be a high scoring one Put into bat by the Proteas skipper Greame Smith, Australians piled up a mammoth 6/377 in their alloted 50 overs. With opener Matthew Hayden scoring a fine 101(68) he was ably supported by Adam Gilchrist 42(42), skipper Ricky Ponting 91(91) and Michael Clarke 92(75). Chasing 378, South Africa started on a superb note with openers Greame Smith 74(69) and Abraham Benjamin DeVilliers 92(70) put on 160 for the opening wicket. After the dismissal of A. B. DeVilliers, Proteas had lost momentum and lost wickets in the regular intervals with Jacques Kallis 48(63) offering some resistence and the entire team dismissed for 294 to hand a 83 run victory to the Aussies.
Match between England and New Zealand in Pool C were also in for a climax. As after being put into bat by New Zealand , England finished at 7/209 in 50 overs. Chasing 210, Kiwis slumped to 3/19 and then 4/72. The target was looking to be a huge one for the Kiwis. Then a 138 runs by the fifth wicket between Scott Styris 87(113) and Jacob Oram 63(83) saw the Kiwis home.
Super 8 stage were also in for upsets as Bangladesh stunned the Proteas. Also the match between Sri Lanka and South Africa produced some thriller when chasing 210, the Proteas were comfortably placed with 5/206 and suddenly the score became 9/207 with Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga claiming 4 wickets of 4 successive deliveries. This is the only instance in the 50 over ODIs so far. Then a gritty fightback by Robert Peterson and number 11 , Charl Langeveldt saw the Proteas home. Other matches proved to be an one sided ones.
It was Sri Lanka vs New Zealand in the first semi final while Australia vs South Africa in the other.
Both the semi finals appeared to be one sided ones. In the first semi finals , electing to bat Sri Lanka put up 5/289. Courtesy a fine 73(74) by opener Upul Tharanga and a captain's knock of 115(109) by Mahela Jayawardene. Chasing 290 to play the championship match, Kiwis were never really in the hunt , lost wickets in the regular intervals and finally bowled out for 208
In the other semis, electing to bat, the Proteas were bowled out for a paltry 149 leaving a comfortable target of 150 which the Aussies achieved.
Thus it was Sri Lanka vs Australia in the championship match. A repeat of 1996 Grand Finale. Opting to bat, Australia put up 4/281 in the rain curtailed 38 overs . Thanks to a sparkling 149(104) by Adam Gilchrist. Although he later revealed that he placed a Golf ball inside his gloves to have a better grip of the bat. Sri Lanka were progressing well with Kumara Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasurya adding 116 for the second wicket, keeping the contest alive, but after the pair got out, Sri Lanka's chances diminished. Further rain reduced Sri Lanka's innings to 36 overs, with the target revised to 269. At the end of 33rd over, with Sri Lanka still trailing the adjusted target by 37 runs, umpires suspended the game due to bad light. While Australia's players began to celebrate their victory (since the minimum 20 overs had been bowled), the umpires incorrectly announced that because the match was suspended due to light and not rain, the final three overs would have to be bowled the following day. With Sri Lanka needing 61 runs from 18 deliveries, Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene agreed there was no need to return the following day, and instructed his team to resume batting; Ponting agreed to play only spin bowlers. The last three overs were played in almost complete darkness, during which Sri Lanka added just nine runs to give Australia a 53-run victory by the D-L method. The umpires later apologised for their error, saying that the match should have ended then with Australia winning by 37 runs.
The tournament was marred by a huge tragedy as Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died under mysterious circumstances following Pakistan's exit. Scotland Yard was assigned the task of probing the incident, the reports of which are still to be arrived.
The ticket prices were too much for the spectators which was heavily criticised. Also the tournament lasted for 47 days (March 13 -- April 28) making the event a dull and a boring one.
Australia deservedly were crowned the champions as they remained unbeaten throughout. Not a single match of theirs was a close one. They won every matches convincingly.
Highest individual run getter : Matthew Hayden (Australia) with 659 runs
Highest wicket taker : Glenn McGrath (Australia) with 26 wickets
Highest team total : 5/413 India vs Bermuda
Lowest team total : 77 by Ireland vs Sri Lanka
Match of the tournament :
Ireland vs Zimbabwe that finished tied
Dramatis Personae :
- Australia : Ricky Ponting (c) , Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait and Shane Watson
- Netherlands (Holland) : Luuk van Troost (c), Peter Borren, Daan van Bunge, Ryan ten Doeschate, Mark Jonkman, Mohammad Kashif, Alexei Kervezee, Tim de Leede, Adeel Raja, Darron Reekers, Edgar Schiferli, Jeroen Smits, Billy Stelling, Eric Szwarczynski and Bas Zuiderent
- Scotland : Craig Wright (c), John Blain, Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Paul Hoffmann, Dougie Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith, Ryan Watson and Fraser Watts
- South Africa : Graeme Smith (c), Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, André Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince and Roger Telemachus
- Bangladesh : Habibul Bashar (c), Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Farhad Reza, Javed Omar, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Mohammad Rafique, Mushfiqur Rahim, Rajin Saleh, Shakib Al Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Syed Rasel, Tamim Iqbal and Tapash Baisya
- Bermuda : Irving Romaine (c), Delyone Borden, Lionel Cann, David Hemp, Kevin Hurdle, Malachi Jones, Stefan Kelly, Dwayne Leverock, Dean Minors, Saleem Mukuddem, Steven Outerbridge, Oliver Pitcher, Clay Smith, Janeiro Tucker and Kwame Tucker
- India : Rahul Dravid (c), Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, M.S. Dhoni (wk), Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Santhakumaran Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar and Robin Uthappa
- Sri Lanka : Mahela Jayawardene (c), Russel Arnold, Marvan Atapattu, Malinga Bandara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Nuwan Kulasekara, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga and Chaminda Vaas
- Canada : John Davison (c), Qaiser Ali, Ashish Bagai, Geoff Barnett, Umar Bhatti, Ian Billcliff, Desmond Chumney, Austin Codrington, George Codrington, Anderson Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Asif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad and Kevin Sandher
- England : Michael Vaughan (c), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple, Andrew Flintoff, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Andrew Strauss and Stuart Broad
- Kenya : Steve Tikolo (c), Rajesh Bhudia, Jimmy Kamande, Tanmay Mishra, Collins Obuya, David Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Thomas Odoyo, Peter Ongondo, Lameck Onyango, Morris Ouma, Malhar Patel, Ravindu Shah, Tony Suji and Hiren Varaiya
- New Zealand : Stephen Fleming (c), Shane Bond, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Michael Mason, Brendon McCullum, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent, Chris Martin and Hamish Marshall
- Ireland : Trent Johnston (c), Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Kenny Carroll, Peter Gillespie, Dave Langford-Smith, Kyle McCallan, John Mooney, Paul Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin and Andrew White
- Pakistan : Inzamam-ul-Haq (c), Azhar Mahmood, Danish Kaneria, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Sami, Yousuf Youhana, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat and Younis Khan
- West Indies : Brian Lara (c), Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Corey Collymore, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Daren Powell , Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith and Jerome Taylor
- Zimbabwe : Prosper Utseya (c) , Gary Brent, Justice Chibhabha , Elton Chigumbura , Keith Dabengwa , Terry Duffin , Anthony Ireland , Friday Kasteni, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Christopher Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Ed Rainsford, Vusi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams
