Bite of the underdog

By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Jan 25

FORFEITURES, an abandoned game, slogovers and a new champion. The 1996 World Cup is remembered for some innovative power-hitting and slogging that changed the face of One-Day Internationals all over the world.
The Wills World Cup hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the first time, saw the game scaling new heights in the sub-continent following the maiden title win of Sri Lanka.
However, the tournament also had ugly sides. Australia and the West Indies teams refused to travel to Sri Lanka following the Central Bank bombing by Tamil Tigers before the start of the showpiece event.
With both Australia and the West Indies refusing to play, ICC decided to give points to Sri Lanka which helped them walk into the quarter-finals.
Another blot on the tournament was India-Sri Lanka semi-final at Eden Gardens, Kolkata was awarded the eventual champions after crowd trouble.
Chasing Sri Lanka’s 251, India were 120 for 8 when over a million Kolkata crowd threw water bottles on the field that interrupted the game. The officials decided to award the match to Sri Lanka that helped them make the final.
Sri Lankan openers Romesh Kaluwithrana and southpaw Sanath Jayasuriya set a new trend of using the first 15 overs as slog-overs. That helped Lanka amass maximum runs in initial part of the games surprising all.
In the final played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, Sri Lanka invited Australia to bat. Australia started well but crumbled in front of Lankan spin attack. From 137 for 1 they slumped to 170 for five and ended at 241-7.
Lanka lost both the hard-hitting openers cheaply but Aravinda de Silva scored 124-ball 107 and Arjuna Ranatunga played a captain’s knock of 47 to help their side lift their maiden title.