How 1999 World Cup would have turned out had Herschelle Gibbs not dropped Steve Waugh

#1 South Africa would have won the 1999 Cricket World Cup

The 1999 World Cup was perhaps the closest South Africa came to winning the tournament

South Africa’s exit in the semi-finals of the 1992 World Cup was unfortunate as rain left them requiring 22 runs from 1 ball according to Duckworth-Lewis. In the 1996 World Cup, the Proteas were brilliant in the group stages as they won all five of their matches but perished to the West Indies in the quarter-finals.

South Africa were one of the favorites heading into the 1999 World Cup as they had a very solid team filled with world-class cricketers. They were in terrific form during the group stages with a surprise defeat against Zimbabwe being their only slip-up.

They topped their group and qualified for the Super Sixes where they beat Pakistan in a close contest before beating New Zealand convincingly to secure a berth in the semi-finals. This meant that their final Super Six match against Australia was merely a formality.

However, that match turned out to be a deciding factor in the longer run. After putting up a total of 271 thanks to Gibbs’ ton, South Africa had Australia right where they wanted them as the Aussies were struggling at 48/3 before Waugh and Ponting kept the Australians alive.

However, the dropped catch off Waugh eventually went on to cost South Africa the World Cup as he scored a brilliant 120 to take his side to the semi-finals. In the semis, after tieing their game against South Africa, the Aussies progressed to the finals via a higher net run rate.

Had South Africa not dropped the catch, though, such a scenario would never have risen and the Proteas might have gone all the way to lift the trophy.