20th June, 1999 : Australia beat Pakistan by 8 wickets in a World Cup final at Lord's

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On this day 1999. Aus beat Pakistan by 8 wickets in a World Cup final at Lord's. One of the worst games of cricket I've ever seen <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash">#Cricket</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/744950097411182597">June 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Scorecard:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65234.html

I for one was shocked!

Pakistan up to that point were clear favourites and why wouldn't they be?

This was a team consisting of some of the top names of international cricket:

Wasim Akram, Saeed Anwar, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq...

Any one of these players could single-handedly dismantle the opposition but when Pakistan were bowled out for a paltry 132 (39 overs), on a Lord's pitch was good for many more, the die was cast for a humiliating defeat.

Australia's Warne & McGrath were chief tormentors but even given their skills for a world class finalists batting line up to collapse in such a manner was unheard of and rightly brought out all sorts of conspiracy theories!

Australian batsmen then went about destroying any hopes for a Pakistan revival in that game by reaching the target in 20.1 overs.

In my memory, this was the closest Pakistan would ever get to regaining the glory of '92

A sad day all in all for Pakistan supporters and a memory - well not to treasure for sure!

 

[Chrish]

Watched that live.. Warne was epic in both semis and final

 

[The Last Of The Stars]

Heart breaking day it was, still can't get over it.

 

[Im Suds]

One of the saddest more disappointing days in the rollercaster that is Pakistan cricket.
On the final - hierarchy made some crucial errors:
A. Batting first during overhead conditions at lords. When the suns comes out the pitch flattens and so it came to pass when Aussies batted.
B. Dropping Moyo and playing Afridi instead- Moyo ( or yy) was in top form.

That game made Aussies into a world beating team that dominated everyone fir next 15 years.
Imagine if we won it?

 

[big_gamer007]

I remember my mum saying to me when Australia beat SA in that epic semi final "le ab to Pakistan Jeet Gaya ye WC"..

The final was pretty lopsided why they bat first and how all the batsmen had a bad day on the biggest stage of their lives is just a sad story..

 

[Hasan123]

Was only 3 at the time but looking at the scorecard and reading the start of the thread it was a disappointing peformance in the final. Aussies were a good team filled with atgs though. But looking at the quality of our team we should have made the game a contest at least.

 

[big_gamer007]

Was only 3 at the time but looking at the scorecard and reading the start of the thread it was a disappointing peformance in the final. Aussies were a good team filled with atgs though. But looking at the quality of our team we should have made the game a contest at least.

Tbh the strongest team in that tournament were Pakistan and SA.. Aussies were the 3rd best after winning the World Cup they all became ATGs.. In 1999 they weren't ATG were still on their way of becoming..

 

[Hasan123]

Tbh the strongest team in that tournament were Pakistan and SA.. Aussies were the 3rd best after winning the World Cup they all became ATGs.. In 1999 they weren't ATG were still on their way of becoming..

Ahh I see. We did lose to a good team but no way should we have lost by that margin

 

[big_gamer007]

Ahh I see. We did lose to a good team but no way should we have lost by that margin

I believe SA or Pakistan should have won that tournament.. But take nothing away from Aussies after that tournament they went on to become the most dominant force in world cricket for next 8-10 years..

 

[marlonbrowndo]

As someone said above, we were the strongest team in the cup after that steamroller of a South African side. The depth in both our batting lineups was astounding but there's was better. For me that's the best side South Africa has fielded in an ODI and we probably felt lucky at the time that we were going to face the Aussies. World Cup 2019 in England after 20 years. The way things are going we have no chance though I never lose hope.

 

[#GreenRoars]

Heart breaking

 

[Markhor]

As someone said above, we were the strongest team in the cup after that steamroller of a South African side. The depth in both our batting lineups was astounding but there's was better. For me that's the best side South Africa has fielded in an ODI and we probably felt lucky at the time that we were going to face the Aussies. World Cup 2019 in England after 20 years. The way things are going we have no chance though I never lose hope.

Our bowling reserves were astounding but our batting certainly wasn't.

Saaed Anwar was class but he opened with hacks like Wajahatullah Wasti or Shahid Afridi, both not suited to facing seaming Dukes ball in English conditions. Razzaq was at 3 who never had the technique for seaming conditions either.

Ijaz Ahmed and Saleem Malik were well past it whilst Yousuf was just starting out in internationals, leaving Inzamam propping up the middle order. We were reliant on late order cameos from Moin and Wasim. However we could get away with low totals with an exceptional bowling attack.

But you can't win World Cups like that - having 4-5 star players with the rest being passengers. This is why we had the "inconsistent" or "mercurial" tag.

 

[marlonbrowndo]

Our bowling reserves were astounding but our batting certainly wasn't.

Saaed Anwar was class but he opened with hacks like Wajahatullah Wasti or Shahid Afridi, both not suited to facing seaming Dukes ball in English conditions. Razzaq was at 3 who never had the technique for seaming conditions either.

Ijaz Ahmed and Saleem Malik were well past it whilst Yousuf was just starting out in internationals, leaving Inzamam propping up the middle order. We were reliant on late order cameos from Moin and Wasim. However we could get away with low totals with an exceptional bowling attack.

But you can't win World Cups like that - having 4-5 star players with the rest being passengers. This is why we had the "inconsistent" or "mercurial" tag.

Yup its also why I say that it was South Africa's world cup to lose. Just look at their 11. The balance is astounding.

 

[Dman]

The most boring ICC WC final ever.

This was the strongest Pakistani Odi Team in the history and ever since this loss Pakistan has constantly declined as an Odi team over the years. The strength of the team can be imagined from the fact that even likes of Waqar were not able to get a place in the playing 11.

 

[Syed1]

That was probably the first cricket world cup that most of the PP'ers who post these days ever watched. Our team was simply breathtaking up until that point.

I still remember we inched our way to 132 with Ijaz Ahmed top scoring with 20 odd and Gilchrist then just completely blew away the target

Was really hard to take as a young child of only 8-9

 

[Hamza78]

I was shock still can't believe we lose that final

 

[anikrc1]

i was supporting pak for wasim and shoaib

 

[Mp812]

South Africa deserved that cup. However I felt that both Pakistan and Africa peaked too early in the tournament wheras Australia started slowly but peaked at right time just in the semifinals and after that for next 10 years kept their peak form to win 3 world cups in a row

 

[Suleiman]

The most boring ICC WC final ever.

This was the strongest Pakistani Odi Team in the history and ever since this loss Pakistan has constantly declined as an Odi team over the years. The strength of the team can be imagined from the fact that even likes of Waqar were not able to get a place in the playing 11.

No it wasn't the strongest odi Pak team in history.

That would be the 1987 Pakistan team.

Decline started in 2003.

From that horrid final to 2002 we were still a very good ODI team. Beat Aus in Aus 2-1.

 

[Indian_Supporter]

Pakistan was a fantastic team in that tournament. Probably the most complete Pak team ever featured in WC. It was way better that 92 team and marginally ahead of the 96 squad.

Great inform opener like Anwar and young Afridi
Stabilizers like Inzy and Ijaz in middle.
Strikers like Moin/Razzaq at death.
Bowling line up consists of Wasim, Akhtar, Waqar, Razzaq and Saqlain.

Basically a team with no flaws and all bases covered.

If Gibbs didnt drop that catch, Pak would have won the WC as SA would have mostly chocked in finals.

Still cant believe how we beat that team with players like Mongia, Ramesh, Mohanty and Robin Singh

If I recall even Ganguly didnt play the Indo - Pak match in that tournament. So we literally had 2 players - Sachin and Dravid.

That was one WC where I have zero WC of us winning against Pak.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[Abdullah719]

Thankfully too young to have really experienced this properly, can't imagine how terrible it must've been to lose like that after the hopes and expectations were so high.

 

[Hasan123]

Thankfully too young to have really experienced this properly, can't imagine how terrible it must've been to lose like that after the hopes and expectations were so high.

I was also too young for this. I would have been absolutely distraught for a while over this result

 

[EliteCynical]

Does anyone else know about the story of Mohd Yousuf (i think 12th man) and bat grips, which according to Wasim, broke Anwars concentration and eventually lead to his dismissal. Akram said that was a key momentum shift which shouldn't have happened.

 

[street cricketer]

Probably the most one sided world cup final ever.

All the more surprising because Pakistan were in good form leading up to the big day.

 

[ssuhaide]

One of the saddest more disappointing days in the rollercaster that is Pakistan cricket.
On the final - hierarchy made some crucial errors:
A. Batting first during overhead conditions at lords. When the suns comes out the pitch flattens and so it came to pass when Aussies batted.
B. Dropping Moyo and playing Afridi instead- Moyo ( or yy) was in top form.

That game made Aussies into a world beating team that dominated everyone fir next 15 years.
Imagine if we won it?

Mohammed Yousuf was injured he pulled his hamstring in the Pakistan -Austrlia group game I think. He would have played in the team otherwise.

It's funny at the time I was pleased we chose to bat first given our weakness in chasing many thought it may have been the correct call.

 

[msb314]

No it wasn't the strongest odi Pak team in history.

That would be the 1987 Pakistan team.

Decline started in 2003.

From that horrid final to 2002 we were still a very good ODI team. Beat Aus in Aus 2-1.

Bhai decline started after 2007 when Inzy retired - we were a formidable team during Inzy's reign as captain (2004-2007).

I was not born back in 1987 but Inzy's team during the phase from 2004-2007 was one of the best I saw. Formidable in both Tests and ODI's.

 

[The_KING]

Thankfully I was only 5 at that time so don't remember anything from the 99 WC.

 

[Suleiman]

Bhai decline started after 2007 when Inzy retired - we were a formidable team during Inzy's reign as captain (2004-2007).

I was not born back in 1987 but Inzy's team during the phase from 2004-2007 was one of the best I saw. Formidable in both Tests and ODI's.

Initial decline was in 2003. It wasn't a nosedive type decline, more like a slow burn type. The following year we conceded the odi series to India. Have said this in another thread as well, 2004 to 2007 we were a decent ODI team. Not as good as the 90s till 2002, but not garbage. We could challenge big teams all the same, unlike today.

2007 onwards is when the steady decline sped up and we nosedived really hard.

In 2011 it looked like we'd turn things around for the better in the World Cup, but 2012 I'd have to say resumed the decline and by 2013 to 2014 we collapsed completely.

We can't get any worse anymore. Ranked 9 is the bottom of the barrel.

 

[msb314]

Initial decline was in 2003. It wasn't a nosedive type decline, more like a slow burn type. The following year we conceded the odi series to India. Have said this in another thread as well, 2004 to 2007 we were a decent ODI team. Not as good as the 90s till 2002, but not garbage. We could challenge big teams all the same, unlike today.

2007 onwards is when the steady decline sped up and we nosedived really hard.

In 2011 it looked like we'd turn things around for the better in the World Cup, but 2012 I'd have to say resumed the decline and by 2013 to 2014 we collapsed completely.

We can't get any worse anymore. Ranked 9 is the bottom of the barrel.

Fair enough although I would point out that there was no shame at all losing to an ATG indian team - even if we did have home advantage.

We competed well against the likes of Sachin, Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. In fact, it was one of the best blockbuster tours of my lifetime - marginally ahead of Ashes 2005. I think I wrote a post about it about a year ago.

Back on topic - our away form had always been patch (even during the 90s). The best thing I liked about Inzy's era was the stability. No backbiting, no politics and rarely any indiscipline (unless you were Asif or Akhar lol)

 

[Suleiman]

Fair enough although I would point out that there was no shame at all losing to an ATG indian team - even if we did have home advantage.

We competed well against the likes of Sachin, Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. In fact, it was one of the best blockbuster tours of my lifetime - marginally ahead of Ashes 2005. I think I wrote a post about it about a year ago.

Back on topic - our away form had always been patch (even during the 90s). The best thing I liked about Inzy's era was the stability. No backbiting, no politics and rarely any indiscipline (unless you were Asif or Akhar lol)

Yeah and we chased relatively well in this period too. Inzi-MoYo-Malik, with these 3 even in the 270-310 range we'd have a shot to chase it down with Razzaq and/or Afridi killing the RRR.

 

[Mamoon]

A disgraceful day.

I remember switching to Mind Your Language during the innings break.

Was a real kick in the guts.

 

[The_Odd_One]

1999 team had the worst batting line-up.

Afridi or Wasti opening the inning
Razzaq batting one down with SR of 60s
Passengers like Ijazz and Malik in the middle order
Mahmood, Moin, and Akram were extremely inconsistent sloggers

The team had only 2 world class batsmen: Anwar and Inzamam. Yousuf was still establishing himself.

Lost to Bangladesh, India, and SA and turned Zimbabwe match into a QF unnecessarily.

At the end of the day, the better team won the world cup.

2011 Pakistani team was much better than 1999 team.

 

[MenInG]

As painful as memories get!

 

[adzzy786]

I remember this really well. I was only 10 years old watching the game. Me and my dad were looking forward to it and were expecting and hoping Pakistan would win.

I remember when Saeed Anwar was batting he was playing beautifully and he then changed the grip of his bat to go and get out.

This was a painful memory and my dads never watched cricket since that day.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

What a day.. With India out of the WC did not want Pakistan to win a second WC before us, Wish was granted. Aussies absolutely hammered such a strong Pakistani team.
This was an unexpected result as Aussies were almost out of the tournament earlier. A Shocker for the Pakistanis understandably.. and India and Sri Lanka suffered same fate in 2003 and 2007 as well.

 

[Devadwal]

One of the worst surrender in wc final by a such strong team .

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

Also, i distinctly remember during the presentation ceremony a beer can was thrown at Pakistani players which ended up hitting Bevan in the face. Then the ceremony was pretty low key indoors and Aussies could not celebrate, and lots of boorish behaviour from largely Pakistani crowd, who were really angry.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> in 1999. A terrible day for Pakistan cricket as Australia won the World Cup final at Lord's. It was an easy win for the Aussies by 8 wickets, with the entire match only lasting 59.1 overs <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/7fDgmN8Kbn">pic.twitter.com/7fDgmN8Kbn</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1406521216677126146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
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[Shafi]

Our players were never mentally tough to win World Cups. Had any of India or Australia played in 1992 final, we would have same results.

 

[Shafi]

A disgraceful day.

I remember switching to Mind Your Language during the innings break.

Was a real kick in the guts.

Not really, Australia has better atch winners than us plus they were mentally tough where our players crumble under pressure as always.

 

[Amjid Javed]

pakistan left their worst performance of the tournament for the final. Such a tragedy and shame

 

[ishtiaq_ctg]

A top 3 that had Wasti & Razzak to face Mcgrath and a long lower middle order of moin khan, afridi, Wasim & mahmood to face warne. Pakistan would've collapsed 9 out of 10 times against Australia with that batting lineup.(Which they did 2 years later in the natwest final at lords. Bundled out for less then 150 with a preety similar batting lineup.)

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Also, i distinctly remember during the presentation ceremony a beer can was thrown at Pakistani players which ended up hitting Bevan in the face. Then the ceremony was pretty low key indoors and Aussies could not celebrate, and lots of boorish behaviour from largely Pakistani crowd, who were really angry.

This was after the Natwest final in 2001.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

This was after the Natwest final in 2001.

ah.. okay. my bad.

 

[Dulex9]

I was almost 10 and was expecting the Pakistan team to win and since I live in England, the world cup had a bonanza to it.

The kits were designed nice and plenty of low scoring 220/230 games with the odd 270 ones.

Back then Pakistan was a very strong team and South Africa seemed a tougher prospect than Australia.

A hard fought game was expected but it seemed like pakistan batsman did not turn up and played loose shots. Pakistan did have a long batting line up which has wasti, Razzaq, ijaz, afraid, moin, Mahmood, akram very much dependent on inzy and late order cameos.

However this was the start of the Australia dominance and india were ranked 8th out of 9th back then.

 

[Dulex9]

Re the Bevan incident happened same teams 2001 final, almost same team waqur played, Pak batted first and got bowled out for 150 odd. Lee was added to the Australian line up.

 

[Braveheart]

Also, i distinctly remember during the presentation ceremony a beer can was thrown at Pakistani players which ended up hitting Bevan in the face. Then the ceremony was pretty low key indoors and Aussies could not celebrate, and lots of boorish behaviour from largely Pakistani crowd, who were really angry.

That was not the WC final. It was the TRi-Series Final in 2001

 

[FearlessRoar]

Former Pakistan batter Ijaz Ahmed, during a program on a local channel, revealed that Wasim took the wrong decision to bat first in the final of ICC ODI World Cup 1999:

"We had won the final when we won the toss. I think it was a wrong decision which Wasim Akram took. Even a kid or street cricketer being captain of the Pakistan team will not take such a decision.

We [Wasim and I] have shared a room for 9 years, and we are very good friends. One day before the match, around 6:00 pm, it was heavily raining. Around 8:00 pm, before dinner, I told him not to make this mistake to win the toss and bat first.

If you are feeling some pressure, conduct a team meeting tomorrow morning. On match day, around 6:00 am, it was also heavily raining. We went to the ground without any meeting.

I saw Imran bhai (Imran Khan), I went to pay salaam to him, and meanwhile, the toss happened, and Wasim said after winning the toss, 'It's not my decision, it's a team decision, we are gonna bat first.' I told Imran bhai I have to leave because I will bat at No. 3.

I had just taken 6 steps forward when Imran bhai called me from behind and said, 'You guys have already lost the match.'

So I feel sorry that we should have let them bat first."

 

[BouncerGuy]

The team that should have won the World Cup but ended up botching it after dominating the whole tournament.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1803664417063575591

 

[Visaal-E-Yaar]

It's like pointed knife into the heart.

 

[sweep_shot]

Pakistan were favorites to win the final but they couldn't get the job done.

Start of the ruthless ATG Aussie domination.

 

[cricketmerijaan]

Also, i distinctly remember during the presentation ceremony a beer can was thrown at Pakistani players which ended up hitting Bevan in the face. Then the ceremony was pretty low key indoors and Aussies could not celebrate, and lots of boorish behaviour from largely Pakistani crowd, who were really angry.

Wasn’t that the NatWest Tri series in 2001?

 

[BouncerGuy]

One of the most painful defeats in pakistan cricket history.

 

[Kianig89]

After that day , Pakistan cricket entered dark phase and we are still in it barring couple of flukes we are mediocre

 

[sweep_shot]

After that day , Pakistan cricket entered dark phase and we are still in it barring couple of flukes we are mediocre

I believe dark phase started after 2003 World Cup.

Pakistan were still quite dominating in 2001 and 2002. They went to Australia and won an ODI series (if I remember correctly).

 

[Inswinging Yorker]

I remember reading about allegations of match fixing. But it was a disgraceful performance by Wasim and his men

 

[Croma]

Australia had lined up and beaten each Asian Powerhouse one after the other in consecutive World Cups.

1999 Lanka
2003 Pakistan
2007 India

Thats something

 

[jnaveen1980]

Australia had lined up and beaten each Asian Powerhouse one after the other in consecutive World Cups.

1999 Lanka
2003 Pakistan
2007 India

Thats something

I think you got the years wrong. 1999 pakistan 2003 India 2007 Srilanka.

 

[Pakpak]

Australia had lined up and beaten each Asian Powerhouse one after the other in consecutive World Cups.

1999 Lanka
2003 Pakistan
2007 India

Thats something

1987 they won the final
1992 out
1996 lost the final
1999 Pakistan beaten in final
2003 India beaten in final
2007 Sri Lanka Beaten in final
2011 out
2015 won
2019 out 2023 won

Insane out of 9 finals they have played 7 and won 6

 

[sweep_shot]

1987 they won the final
1992 out
1996 lost the final
1999 Pakistan beaten in final
2003 India beaten in final
2007 Sri Lanka Beaten in final
2011 out
2015 won
2019 out 2023 won

Insane out of 9 finals they have played 7 and won 6

Yup.

Also, from the 6 World Cups then won, 5 were outside of Australia.

They won World Cups in West Indies, South Africa, Australia, Subcontinent, and England.

 

[cricketmania22]

This was our best chance to win a World Cup! We had a very good team, a very balanced team but the batting let us down, again! I again blame Inzamam for it, it was his time to step it up after Saeed Anwar scored two centuries in last two matches to get us into the final, but Inzi bottled it yet again. We were the favorites but crumbled under pressure. To this day whenever we are called favorites we bottle it. After that day I realized we only perform well as the underdogs, but whenever we are called favorites, we lose badly!