1999 Cricket World Cup

Result

Player of the Match (Final)

Shane Warne, Australia

Tournament format

12 teams in two groups of six, round-robin, with the top three from each group advancing to a "Super Six" stage that carried forward points earned only against fellow Super Six qualifiers, before the top four went through to semi-finals and the final. Hosted primarily by England, with matches also played in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands -- Scotland became the first Associate nation to host World Cup matches.

Full match archive

Every match of the 1999 tournament, not just the final — all 41 group-stage and semi-final matches, plus the final round-robin standings. See all 41 matches →

Final: match context

Australia won their second World Cup in 1999, beating Pakistan by 8 wickets in a lopsided final at Lord's, but the tournament as a whole is remembered far more for the extraordinary semi-final that got Australia there than for the final itself. Pakistan batted first and collapsed spectacularly, bowled out for just 132 in 39 overs. Shane Warne was the chief destroyer, taking 4 for 33 from his 9 overs and dismantling Pakistan's middle order with his leg-spin; Saeed Anwar, Abdul Razzaq, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul-Haq and wicketkeeper Moin Khan all fell cheaply in a innings that never found any momentum, with Shahid Afridi's 13 the closest anyone came to a genuine score. Chasing just 133, Australia made light work of it, needing only 20.1 overs to get home for the loss of 2 wickets -- Adam Gilchrist set the tone with an explosive 54 off 36 balls including 8 fours and a six, Ricky Ponting added 24, and Mark Waugh (37 not out) and Darren Lehmann (13 not out) finished the job, Lehmann striking the winning boundary for an emphatic 8-wicket win. The final's one-sidedness stood in stark contrast to the tournament's true showpiece: the second semi-final at Edgbaston four days earlier, in which Australia and South Africa finished tied at 213 runs apiece in one of the most dramatic matches ever played. With the scores level and a single run needed off the final ball, South Africa's Lance Klusener mishit a delivery toward mid-off and set off for the run; non-striker Allan Donald failed to respond in time, dropped his bat in the panic, and was run out well short of his ground -- the tie sent Australia through to the final on superior net run-rate from the Super Six stage, at South Africa's direct expense. Wisden called it simply the best one-day international played up to that point, and the match remains one of the sport's most replayed and discussed moments decades later. The tournament produced one other genuinely unusual footnote: India and Pakistan met at Old Trafford during the group stage while the two nations were, at that exact moment, engaged in the Kargil War -- reportedly the only time two countries have played each other at a Cricket World Cup while officially in an active military conflict. A new, harder-swinging white Duke ball was used throughout, adding an extra wrinkle for batsmen across the tournament. Geoff Allott of New Zealand and Australia's own Shane Warne tied as the tournament's leading wicket-takers with 20 apiece, while South Africa's Lance Klusener was named Player of the Tournament despite his side's agonising exit in the semi-final that bears his name in cricket folklore.

Sources

• Wikipedia: 1999 Cricket World Cup
• Wikipedia: 1999 Cricket World Cup final
• ESPNcricinfo