ICC Champions Trophy 2002: Knockout makes way for Champions

Moments of the tournament

At the outset, I would say that Pools 1 and 4 provided for the most boring and one-sided games that One Day Cricket could come up with. It wasn’t as if the competition couldn’t have been fierce but Pakistan made heavy weather of reaching 200 against Sri Lanka which proved to be a canter for the Lankan Lions. Pool 4 on the other hand saw Glenn McGrath, with some exceptional new ball bowling by a fast bowler in sub-continental conditions, reduce New Zealand to 71 for 7 within the first 15 overs when batsmen tried to hit out (for those who might have forgotten, this tournament was played in the pre-powerplay era and the first 15 overs were a time when the field was pulled in).

Apart from that, the sheer one-sidedness of the Bangladesh and Dutch games need not be elaborated. Roland Lefebvre, the Dutch captain and one of the two players in the Netherlands squad to have played in the ’96 World Cup, put it before the match against the Lankans that they were there to learn. Learn they did, the hard way as they were brushed aside in 18 overs by Pakistan and by 206 runs by Sri Lanka.

Pool 2

Pool 2 saw South Africa pitted against Kenya and West Indies. The pool gave games which betrayed the David vs Goliath stature of the competition. South Africa would have been sent packing had Mervyn Dillon held his nerve with 3 needed off the last ball and not sent down a wide. While chasing a competitive 238, which was a match winning total at the Sinhalese Sports Club, South Africa were given a serious run for their money by the West Indies as they won by 2 wickets off the last ball. In the second game of the pool, Kenya faced West Indies against whom they had a perfect record and almost pulled off a repeat of Cuttack ’96, but fell short by 29 runs. The last game thankfully lived up to the expectations with South Africa bringing the Kenyans back to earth with a grounding 176-run defeat.

Steve Tikolo of Kenya left a mark on the tournament

It could be said that the pool showed a good balance between bat and ball, though in terms of quality there could be serious doubts. While the numbers were seen on the board, yet it was more in the mould that batsman wanted to get out rather than being bowled out. The bright spot of the league games for me was actually Steve Tikolo, who took 3 wickets along with two fifties in two games, albeit the efforts came in losing causes.

Pool 3

Pool 3 saw India, England and Zimbabwe face off. Zimbabwe was handed a thrashing by England in a very one-sided game. However, the other two games featuring India saw emotions rise and fall quickly. In their first game against Zimbabwe, less known Douglas Hondo ran through our famed batting order to leave India at 87 for 5. It was then left to Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif to steady the ship. Kaif, playing his first ODI innings since the epic 87 at Lord’s, smashed 111. Though, due credit must be given to Dravid as these were one of the 74 games when he kept wickets to accommodate Kaif at number 7. In difficult conditions, Dravid kept wickets for 50 overs and scored 71. If the match was played today, Dravid would definitely have had more MVP points than Kaif. The game wasn’t over as even a target of 289 didn’t seem difficult with India’s arch-nemesis of the 90s, Andy Flower to come. He played an exhilarating knock of 145 and that too after keeping 50 overs. The ‘keeper versus ‘keeper battle though was won by Dravid as he had more support from his teammates and India won by 14 runs.

The second game against England was a must win for both teams and England were vying for revenge for the Natwest Final. The Indian bowlers, after a fantastic start, got hit for plenty of runs by a certain Ian Blackwell who was playing his second ODI. It was his only moment of glory at the international level as he soon faded away. With 270 to chase, Sehwag and Ganguly came out as slayers sent by the devil himself and the haplessness faced by Hoggard, Caddick, Cork, Giles and Irani was palpable. Both scored exceptional hundreds and the word canter would sell India’s chase short as the run-chase was completed at close to 7 runs an over.