Wills World Cup 1996 : Poetic Justice For Sri Lanka

The sixth edition of the ODI World Cup was staged once again in the Indian Sub-Continent with India hosting 17 matches, Pakistan hosting 16 and Sri Lanka 4 matches. Twelve nations participated in the tournament with United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Netherlands and Kenya making their debut.

These teams were split into two groups with Group A consisting of India, Australia, the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Kenya while Pakistan, New Zealand, England, South Africa, the Netherlands and UAE were placed in Group B. There was a change in the format with the top 4 of each group advancing to the Quarter Finals. Format of Quarter Finals were as follows :  A1 vs B4, A2 vs B3, A3 vs B2 and A4 vs B1

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The tournament was marred with controversies as Australia and the West Indies refusing to play in Sri Lanka citing security concerns.  As a result Sri Lanka were declared winners of both the matches by default. This was the first instance when matches were awarded by default. Sri Lanka became the first team to enter the quarter finals before the tournament got underway. The most shocking result were produced when Kenya (166) stunned the West Indies (93) at Pune.

The Quarter Final line up were as follows : England vs Sri Lanka ; New Zealand vs Australia ; Pakistan vs India and South Africa vs West Indies. The shocking result produced when West Indies ousted the in form South Africans.

Hence the Semi Final line-up stood like this : Sri Lanka vs India and West Indies vs Australia.  More controversy took place when due to crowd’s hooliganism in Eden Gardens, Calcutta, the match was awarded to Sri Lanka. While there was a high drama at Mohali in the other semi-finals. Australia were tottering at 4/15  when Stuart Law 72(105)  and Michael Bevan 69(110)  steadied the ship at put the total upto 207. West Indies were cruising to win and at stage were 2/165 but the batting order collapsed after that and the entire team were bowled out at 202.

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So it was an Australia vs Sri Lanka Grand Finale.  Put into bat Australia put up 7/241. While chasing, Sri Lanka were off to a disastrous start at 2/23 then the experienced trio of Asanka Gurusinghe 65(99), Aravinda DeSilva 107 not out (124) and skipper Arjuna Ranatunga 47 not out (37) guided the team to be the World Champions. This was the first instance that a team winning the world cup while chasing.

It was a poetic justice as Australia refused to play in Sri Lanka and were finally beaten by the very same opponents.  Sanath Jayasurya were adjudged the player of the tournament.