WORLD CUP SEMIS- 1999

The seventh edition of the cricket world cup was held at England in 1999. Twelve teams participated in the tournament and it was won by Australia. The semi final match between Australia and South Africa was a close one. South Africa won the toss and elected to field first. Thanks to some brilliant piece of bowling by Pollock and Donald, Australians were restricted to a meager total of 213. Pollock took 5 wickets and Donald took 4 wickets. Four of Australian batsmen were out for a duck. Following that South Africa started their batting with an easy task in hand. But though many batsmen contributed considerably South Africa was not able to reach the target because of the continuous fall of wickets. Finally 1 run was required from 3 balls. Unfortunately Allan Donald was run out by Mark Waugh and hence the match was tied. As Australia had higher run rate than South Africa they were qualified for the finals. It was very bad day for South Africa because being on the winning stream they lost the match. It was one of the most memorable matches of Indian cricket.