A retrospective review of one of the more baffling ODI series ever played
It might come across as curious
that I’m writing a review of the 1992-93 World Series Cup, but if you
don’t like curious, you’re not going to enjoy the next piece. This
series featured hosts Australia, world champions
Pakistan and the then-mighty West Indies. Each side boasted world class
ODI stars like Dean Jones, Steve Waugh, Des Haynes, Curtly Ambrose,
Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad, Waqar Younis and plenty more. These three
teams were sure to play some amazing cricket.
And there were some tense matches, but none of them ran with the
conventional pre-tournament ‘classic cricketing contest’ hype. These
matches were weird. Very weird. Given the course these matches took,
it’s also weird to think they are merely a footnote
of ODI cricket today. The following looks at the series in detail, and
if all things weird don’t make themselves apparent to you (a hard task, I
grant you),
this font will make it a little clearer.
The series began with a meeting between Pakistan and the West Indies.
It’s difficult to see this as the most dynamic opener to a tournament
attracting international attention with more
modern eyes. Cricket Australia now spurn the concept of neutral
matches, fearing they don’t attract enough attention (unless one of the
teams is India). And the host of the match, the WACA in Perth, is
constantly fighting the resistance of the powers-that-be,
who find the significant time difference between the western state and
the more populous eastern states a permanent inconvenience rather than
an intermittent curiosity. Consequently, the nature of the post-Packer
cricket television does not sit well with those
of us who yearn for the ‘good old days of colour broadcasts’. It makes
you think that, even though Packer was intrinsically focused on cricket
as product, he remained a cricket fan throughout. Everyone since has
been solely a programmer.
Pakistan appeared to apply the
same tactical nous in the tournament opener that served them so well
during their World Cup triumph in Australia and New Zealand the previous
summer. After some initially slow progress,
they trumped the Windies comfortably by five wickets. Neither side
passed 200 in the match, a fact attributed to the lack of pace in what
was traditionally a lively wicket.
If pundits assumed things would
improve, they would be wrong. The following match, the second of a Perth
double header, saw Australia take on the Windies.
Australia crawled to 160 from their 50 overs, with Phil Simmons capturing bowling honours with a Benaud-friendly 2-22. Needless to say, the Windies overhauled the target comfortably.
Match three remains one of the
more bizarre ODIs ever played. Persistent summer rain (in that context,
‘persistent’ and ‘summer’ is almost a tautology) in Sydney days before
the match turned the centre square almost as
green as the outfield. “What we need is strong wind and sunshine, we
don’t want any more rain at all. We’ve tried a helicopter for an hour,
and used super-soppers,” SCG curator Peter Leroy said. (Canberra Times,
Tuesday, December 8, 1992, P26)
Further rain on match day drew the potential for abandonment closer.
Instead, after truncating the match to 30 overs per side, the umpires
ordered play to begin. If not for some near irrelevant pitch covering,
the
pitch would have been invisible.
West Indies captain Richie
Richardson won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bowl first. No
Australian batsman dominated, nor looked comfortable at their short time
at the crease as the Windies’ pace attack exploited
conditions expertly. Still, top order batsman Phil Simmons was
tossed the new ball, and surprised again with 3-11. Dean Jones’ hard
fought 21 was the top score from Australia’s total of 9-101. It was
expected the West Indies would find the going tough,
but perhaps not equally tough. It was a target of 102, after all. The
West Indies were bowled out for 87.
Mark Taylor was worth his wait
in green and gold on his captaincy debut (deputising for the injured
Allan Border). Figuring there was no need to many keep fielders back, he
was rewarded with four catches of his own at
first slip. All the bowlers contributed to the win in one of the few
occasions in the Windies’ era of dominance that Australia targeted them
with specified attack. Taylor’s next captaincy assignment against the
West Indies would become the first time in nearly
20 years that Australia tasted victory in the Caribbean. There was a
case to be made for Taylor’s tactics, wet wicket or not.
The Australia v Pakistan clash
in Hobart two days later saw a return to normal transmission, for 99 of
the 100 overs at least. Chasing 229 to win, Pakistan hung their hopes on
a profitable partnership between Rashid Latif
and Asif Mujtaba. That was until Latif was run out for 39, totally
losing sight of the direct-hit return from Craig McDermott, and standing
startled a few feet short of the crease before accepting his fate.
Mujtaba was Pakistan’s last hope, but with
17 needed to win from the last five balls, there was no real hope. Mujtaba and Aaqib Javed
managed ten from four when the last ball was bowled.
With paceman-iceman Steve Waugh bowling, a victory for Australia was
assured. The final delivery from Waugh was a waist high full toss that
Mujtaba hoisted into the stands for six. The tie was only the fifth in
ODI cricket. The postscript to this match
endeavoured to carry on the ‘weirdest summer of cricket’ tag, but in reality, one in 100 overs is all people will remember.
So far, Pakistan’s tenacity had
shone in their performances, but Mr Hyde reared his ugly head in match
five. No sooner had the green machine looked in blossoming form did it
evaporate in the muggy humidity of Adelaide.
Once again, rain intervened in their match against the West Indies, but
a more sizable 42 overs per side were bowled. The West Indies’
stop-start innings was not helped by the interruptions, and a total of
7-177 was not likely to be enough. But that molehill
was made to look like a mountain when the West Indies fielded. So
often cutting the figure of a team that wrote the book on how to play
limited overs cricket, the West Indies dropped five catches in
Pakistan’s reply. That doesn’t include one Salim Malik
skier that three fielders attacked, and three fielders backed out of
catching.
Pakistan happily trundled to
1-116 when Ramiz was run out after a sudden injury to Salim Malik
rendered him immobile. In turning for the third, Malik turned the
fortunes of his team radically. He was dismissed not long
after, runner in tow, when Phil Simmons took a terrific low catch that
enhanced his reputation in this series as anything BUT a top order
batsman. Pakistan then panicked.
Inzamam added one more to his bulging catalogue of comical run-outs,
while Mujtaba was run out thanks to some spritely athleticism from
bowler Anderson Cummins in his follow through. Pakistan lost 7-45 to
fall short by four runs.
From then on, Pakistan’s World
Series Cup campaign didn’t show flashes of brilliance, but rather
illuminated their shortcomings. Australia faced them in Adelaide next
time and, despite a stunning late order assault from
Inzamam Ul-Haq (60 off 70 balls) and Wasim Akram (36 off 15 balls), an
otherwise spineless batting and ineffective bowling display saw
Australia march home by eight wickets.
Australia wished their form in Adelaide could have carried over to Melbourne against the West Indies, but that wasn’t to be.
The MCG’s new outfield which was relaid after the AFL Grand Final the previous
September, was under-prepared, with large patches of sand still widely
apparent, like a tangible mirage. The upshot of this was groundstrokes
on arguably the biggest cricket ground in world
were valueless. So, like in Perth, Australia’s top order struggled
for impetus against the Windies quicks. Only a face-saving 57 from Mark
Waugh (intelligently hitting over the top to find the boundary) dragged
Australia to an non-threatening 8-198.
With Brian Lara and Richie
Richardson batting as if they rolled out a fresh new wicket, captain
Mark Taylor turned to Mark ‘Partnership Breaker’ Waugh to deliver.
He took each of their wickets within a few overs. The West Indies
then channelled Pakistan to lose 8-36, and the match, by four runs.
Mark Waugh followed up his runs and two wickets with three more
breakthroughs. Like Allan Border in Test cricket,
it was baffling that Waugh’s bowling wasn't used more often. It was
even weirder to think history would nearly repeat itself in the 1996
World Cup semi-final; the West Indies (and most notably, Richie
Richardson) victims on each occasion.
An (almost) interesting side note to this match: Damien Martyn’s
catch to dismiss Carl Hooper was later immortalised when Bono (aka The
Fly) started flicking channels at U2’s famous Zoo TV Sydney gig.
The same gremlins in the Sydney
pitch during match three weren’t in the Sydney pitch for match eight,
but looking at the scoreboard won’t convince you. West Indies faced
Pakistan, and Des Haynes all but carried his bat,
injured knee and all, to score 96 until he swiped at a Wasim Akram full
toss, missed, and lost his off stump. This was the closest any batsman
came to scoring a century in this tournament. And, looking at the
performances of the batsman, and the quality of
some of the wickets throughout the tournament, it’s amazing Haynes made
it so close. The remaining West Indies batsman struggled as they posted
9-214 from their 50 overs.
What followed defies description, but here’s an attempt at one.
Phil Simmons again opened the bowling with the kind of success many expected from his batting, but this time it was different.
In his 10 overs, Simmons sent down 58 dot balls, conceded just three runs, bowled eight maidens and took four wickets.
In the modern age of ODI cricket, where a 100+ strike rate makes you an
also-ran rather than a superstar, this is unfathomable. Well,
to those of us that grew up watching more circumspect pyjama cricket,
it was equally unfathomable.
Simmons’ probing spell reduced Pakistan to 5-14 by the 12th over, with only Inzamam Ul-Haq
(a two in Simmons’ fourth over) and Wasim Akram
(a single in his eighth over)
making any dents in his figures. This amazing performance had more to do
with Pakistan’s ineptitude than quality bowling though, as Pakistan
were steamrolled for just
81… from 48 overs. Rashid Latif only had eyes for salvaging some faint
pride in an otherwise abysmal batting performance, aiming to bat the 50
overs out rather than score runs. He was the last man out for eight from
72 balls.
Richie Richardson’s assessment
of the record breaking performance? “Phil bowled particularly well but
the wicket helped the bowlers a little.” (Canberra Times, Friday, December 18,
1992, P28)
He was so rarely one for
hyperbole.
After some more Test cricket
(which threw up its own share of bizarre moments), Pakistan rejoined the
fold in Brisbane, once again against the West Indies. The break did
Pakistan no good at all. This time it wasn’t Simmons
that tormented them. He was selected, but didn’t bat or bowl in this
match. Not that there was much need to. Pakistan were bowled out for a
mere 72 in 24 overs. The top six batsmen combined for a total of just 12
runs. Ian Bishop was the bowling star
this time, taking 5-25 while Curtly Ambrose, an almost inconspicuous
character in this series, took a miserly 3-13. While panicking at the
sight of chasing a small target was a common sight in this tournament,
there was none here.
A day later, Australia
rounded out the ‘panicking at the last hurdle’ trifecta, losing by seven
runs to the West Indies. Ian Healy (in his longest ODI innings) and
Mark Waugh looked to be dragging Australia to victory
before Waugh was run out for 54. Australia lost 5-32 at the end of
their innings (with no less than four run-outs), all out for 190 chasing
198. The West Indies also managed victory without star bowlers Curtly Ambrose, Phil Simmons
and Ian Bishop. The psychological boost went down well, with the West Indies comfortably qualifying for the finals.
The remaining two preliminary
matches gave Pakistan the chance to regain some form and self-respect,
as the finals were now out of their reach. Australia batted first in
Melbourne in match 11 as they found, once again,
that boundaries came at a premium. Six fours and one six peppered
Australia’s innings, yet they still managed to pump out 6-212, thanks to
hustle-and-bustle 84 from Dean Jones. He was on course for a century,
until a Waqar Younis thunderbolt turned the stumps
into firewood.
Pakistan’s dependence on the late overs flurry, like in World Cup, cost
them dearly here, as the top order’s sluggish progress gave the middle
order too much to do. Pakistan finished on
7-180. More of the same was to be expected in the last of the
preliminaries.
As it happens, Australia
benefited from its most profitable batting performance of the
tournament. Mark Taylor, David Boon and Steve Waugh each made 50s in a
total of 6-260. Pakistan performed relatively well, but were
ultimately never in the hunt, and fell short by 23 runs. That left
Australia and the West Indies to battle it out in the best of three
finals.
The West Indies batted first in
the first final and, in one of their more enterprising batting efforts,
finished on a competitive 8-239. And while Australia started well-ish,
Dean Jones did nothing to help the cause.
His now infamous request to Curtly Ambrose to remove his white
sweatbands baffled and angered Ambrose, and some deadly accurate bowling
followed.
“He wasn’t happy about having to
take the sweat bands off. He has bowled with them all through the
competition without anyone complaining and he was worked up after that,”
Richie Richardson said. (The Canberra Times,
Sunday, January 17, 1993, P14)
The ensuing contest against
Jones made for particularly engaging viewing. For all that has been
mentioned since about the incident, that fact is Ambrose didn’t in fact
take Jones’ wicket that night. That honour belonged
to Kenny Benjamin, catching Jones unawares with a short ball that found
the hands of Phil Simmons.
Mark Waugh again started a
recovery mission but, like in Brisbane the last time he batted against
the West Indies, a clumsy run-out cost him his wicket, out for 51.
Later, Curtly Ambrose bowled what must surely be the
most telegraphed slower ball in the history of cricket, and Ian Healy
duly missed it. Smiles, joyful and ironic ones alike, shone on the
players as Ambrose finished without Jones, but with 5-32. Australia were
bowled out for 214.
The pattern of the last few
matches saw very little in the way of weird cricket, but the slow
outfield of Melbourne beckoned for the second final, and normal
transmission was to resume.
Australia’s start was
encouraging enough, but after scoring 24 by the fourth over, Australia
then faced 37 more overs, hit a solitary boundary (an edge off Paul
Reiffel), scored just 108 runs and lost all their wickets.
Ambrose was again the star, taking 3-26, while Ian Bishop (2-33) and
Carl Hooper (2-28) terrific in support.
Mark Waugh compounded frustration with another run-out. If not for
his elegance at the crease, he would have been lumped together with
Inzamam in the bad running stakes. The total of 147 was made at a
snail’s pace and, despite their form and ability, the
West Indies didn’t fare too much better.
Trembling initially at 3-23,
Brian Lara (60) and Carl Hooper (59*) all but saw the Windies to the
World Series Cup title. Once again though,
the difficult outfield saw any chance of a low-target blitzkrieg an
impossibility. Lara faced 100 balls (and injured two when he was struck
right where it hurts most, prompting some words from Mark Waugh, and a
riposte from Lara) and Hooper faced a win-at-any-cost
132 balls, an innings which would be considered sluggish even in a
Test. Australia fought back late in the innings to claim a few more
wickets, but none to realistically push for a win. The simple fact was
the West Indies were overall the best side. (The Canberra Times, Tuesday, January 19, 1993, P22)
Phil Simmons won the Man of the
Series award (even though his primary function could only net him 88
runs at 17.6), Curtly Ambrose won Man of the Finals (deservedly,
although Lara could feel a little cheated) and Richie
Richardson held the trophy for the West Indies… again.
Check it out for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL997C2E2C4390F556
Bibliography:
The Canberra Times (see above)
Wisden Cricketer's Almanack 1994 edited by Matthew Engel (John Wisden and Co Ltd 1994)
World Series Cup in Aust Dec 1992/Jan 1993 - Short Report by Phil Stead
Highlights of World Series 1992-93 Season VHS (Festival Video)
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