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1992 Cricket World Cup

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The 1992 Cricket World Cup (aka Benson & Hedges World Cup) was the fifth edition of the tournament and was won by Pakistan. It was held from February 22 to March 25, 1992 in Australia and New Zealand.

Rule changes

The 1991-92 World Cup saw several changes from previous tournaments:

  • the first World Cup to have day/night matches
  • the first World Cup to use white cricket balls and coloured team uniforms
  • A controversial system of recalculating team totals for a reduced number of overs for matches affected by rain was introduced.
  • the first World Cup to feature an African Test nation - South Africa.
  • the first World Cup held in the Southern hemisphere.
  • New techniques were used

    • pinch-hitters (Batsmen sent in the early stages (higher order) to hit the ball over the infield to ensure a good start to the innings)
    • New Zealand opening with spin bowlers to confuse the higher order batsmen who are used to fast bowlers trying to extract speed and bounce with the new ball

The format was changed from the 1987 World Cup to accommodate South Africa. Nine countries participated in the event and, for the first time, the teams were not divided into groups. The first stage involved a complete round-robin and required 36 matches. The top four teams qualified for the semi-finals.

Overview of the tournament

The countries participating were all Test nations, with the exception of Zimbabwe:

The 1992 World Cup was won by Pakistan, captained by Imran Khan, who beat England by 22 runs in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), to see the "Cornered tigers" and Imran Khan lift the trophy. Pakistan won just one of their first five matches and only qualified for the semi-finals by beating the previously undefeated New Zealand side in their final round robin game. In one of the games Pakistan looked set to lose with England on 24-1 chasing Pakistan's score of 74 all out, but were saved by a spell of rain, which left the game as a no-result, the sides taking one point each. Without that point Pakistan would not have qualified for the semi-finals. New Zealand and South Africa were the losing semi-finalists.

South Africa's semi-final against England ended in controversial circumstances when, after a rain delay, the rule in use for revising target scores in rain-affected matches revised their target from 22 runs from 13 balls to an impossible 21 runs from one ball. This rule was replaced for One-day International matches in Australia after the World Cup, and it was eventually superseded by the Duckworth-Lewis method for the 1999 World Cup onwards. The revised D/L target for the match would have been four runs to tie or five to win from the final ball.

A notable feature of this World Cup was the innovative tactics employed by New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, who opened his team's bowling with a spin bowler, Dipak Patel, rather than with a fast bowler, as is usual practice. Another innovation was the opening of the New Zealand batting by pinch hitters.

New Zealand lost only two matches in the tournament, a Group match and their Semi-final, both against Pakistan.

Group Stage

Table

Team Pts Pld W L NR T RD RR
14 8 7 1 0 0 0.59 4.76
11 8 5 2 1 0 0.47 4.36
10 8 5 3 0 0 0.14 4.36
9 8 4 3 1 0 0.17 4.33
8 8 4 4 0 0 0.20 4.22
8 8 4 4 0 0 0.07 4.14
5 8 2 5 1 0 0.14 4.95
5 8 2 5 1 0 −0.68 4.21
2 8 1 7 0 0 −1.14 4.03

Knockout Stage

Semi-Finals



Final


After a poor start Pakistan soon found their form. Imran Khan and Javed Miandad shared a third-wicket partnership of 139. Inzamam-ul-Haq scored 42 off 35 balls with Wasim Akram with 33 off only 19. Wasim soon dismissed Ian Botham for a duck in the first over of England's innings. The left-armer's next wickets settled the match. He then clean bowled Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis in consecutive balls, leaving England 141 for six and never recovered. Imran Khan proudly lifted Pakistan's first world cup, much to the delight of the majority of the Melbourne crowd. This was also Imran's last ODI and a fitting way to end an illustrious international career spanning over two decades.

Statistics







'''Leading run scorers


Runs 
Player 
Country 

456 
  Martin Crowe 
   

437 
  Javed Miandad 
   

410 
  Peter Kirsten 
   

368 
  David Boon 
   

349 
  Rameez Raja 
   







Leading wicket takers


Wickets 
Player 
Country  

18 
  Wasim Akram 
   

16 
  Ian Botham 
   

16 
  Mushtaq Ahmed 
   

16 
  Chris Harris 
   

14 
  Eddo Brandes 
   






Man of the Series
 Notes and references 


External links






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Last updated on Friday July 25, 2008 at 18:21:13 PDT (GMT -0700)
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