It was following Australia’s 10-run loss to Pakistan less than a month earlier – the team’s second defeat from three starts in its faltering 1999 World Cup campaign – that Steve Waugh proclaimed matter-of-factly his team simply had to win their next seven matches to secure the title.
Even though that feat was no longer possible – the fact the semi-final against South Africa ended in a tie will forever remain a pub trivia night question – on the back of resurgent team belief, individual heroics and six undefeated outings on the trot, the Australians were in the final.
And it was the enigmatic talents of Pakistan, as well as the equally unpredictable London early summer weather, that presented the final hurdle.
In the wake of that scarcely believable finish at Edgbaston, the Australians greatest challenge in the two spare days between the semi-final and the decider was to get their heads right.
Within a couple of overs against South Africa they had gone from potential finalists to crestfallen losers to unlikely beneficiaries, granted passage to the final by dint of a horribly botched single and, in the days long before Super Overs and boundary countbacks were a thing, the tournament’s rules relating to tied results in elimination matches.
In wake of the semi-final the players were ecstatic but celebrations were muted. Having come so far in the past fortnight, this Australian side was not now going to let anything jeopardise their chance to win it all. The day after the game was spent making the trip from Birmingham to the capital and settling into their familiar London digs, and a light training run ensued on match eve.
Despite having lost to Pakistan earlier in the competition, Waugh’s team felt buoyed to be playing a side that was famous for running scalding hot or ice cold, and the pre-final planning centred as much on psychology as it did on batting and bowling strategies.
Put succinctly by Waugh: “Wasim Akram’s team hated persistent, consistent, ruthless teams who could expose the Pakistanis’ inconsistency and volatile moods.”
The mercurial nature of the Pakistanis meant they could also be easily flustered, especially in such a high-stakes contest, so the Australians fielders would hurl the ball back to ‘keeper Adam Gilchrist – as close to the opposing batsmen as was politely allowed – at every opportunity.
It was a ploy designed to raise anxiety levels among Akram’s men as surely as depriving their free-flowing batters of boundaries and taking the attack to their menacing but notoriously fractious new-ball bowlers.
A heavy morning shower that delayed the start at Lord’s briefly had some Australians recalling a similar scenario at the 1996 World Cup final in Pakistan, but this time Australia had been asked to bowl first.
Labelling it “a good toss to lose”, Waugh was not displeased and the Aussies were out warming up in the sprinkling rain while their opposition remained in the dry ‘home’ dressing room they had desired – another win for the Aussies who were well accustomed to the ‘away’ rooms at Lord’s.
Everything fell into place for an Australian side that proved as ruthlessly flawless as their opponent was skittish and clueless.
Pakistan’s fans sensed it was not to be their day when Mark Waugh hung parallel to the Lord’s turf to pluck a slips catch off Glenn McGrath that still rivals anything taken in the intervening years.
Just as important was Damien Fleming’s removal of opener Saeed Anwar who had scored centuries in each of Pakistan’s previous two matches.
Their innings finished less than 40 overs later when Ricky Ponting clung to an equally improbable chance from McGrath with Pakistan’s total a seriously-below-par 132.
In between, a reinvigorated Shane Warne fresh from his game-turning spell in the semi-final, mesmerised the Pakistani batters who had handled him with ease at Headingley weeks earlier.
Pre-match build up had seen Pakistan pundits claim they would have “no problems” facing Warne, but the leg-spinner enhanced his already healthy record against Pakistan by claiming 4-33 to secure player of the match honours in the second consecutive game at the pointy end of the tournament.
“I woke up this morning knowing I wanted to make amends for the last World Cup final (when Australia lost to Sri Lanka) and I think all the boys did that,” Warne said in his post-match address. “I thought I’d been bowling pretty well throughout the tournament apart from a couple of off days but that’s just cricket.
“Certainly the final brought out the best in me and the game is something I’ll always remember.
In his 2002 self-titled autobiography he added: “I had been through some tough times, the hardest of my career, and to get through them the way I did to bowl the way I did in those two finals I felt proud.”
Warne had tortured Ijaz Ahmed, who could only nod in appreciation as leg-breaks fizzed past the right-hander’s blade until, seemingly inevitably, he was undone by another piece of Warne magic. It wasn’t the Gatting ball, nor as wonderous as the ball that bowled Hershcelle Gibbs in the semi-final, but another fantastic delivery that pitched on leg and had Ijaz playing back, prodding with his bat and watching it rip past the ineffectual defence and into the off-stump.
Moin Khan was well caught off a faint outside edge by opposite number Gilchrist to start Warne’s fourth over, and he closed his sixth by rapping Shahid Afridi on the pads to draw the nod from umpire Steve Bucknor.
And when Inzaman-ul-Haq was given out caught behind off Paul Reiffel he plodded so ponderously from the crease the television commentary quipped, “at the rate at which he’s going, he’s going to take a couple of months to reach the pavilion”.
Pakistan’s muddled thinking was rampant as wickets continued to crash, and rather than trying to play out their full allotment of overs and build a score that was possibly defendable, they continued to self-destruct in pursuit of glory shots.
There was no better example than Akram’s ill-timed slog against Warne that gifted his wicket and left his team all but sunk at 9-129 in the 38th over.
Australia’s only concern was losing a clatter of wickets against Akram and the tournament’s fastest bowler Shoaib Akhtar when the ball was new but, playing what was to become his signature role in World Cup finals, Gilchrist put paid to any apprehension.
He took to the already rattled Pakistanis with unabashed intent and reached 50 (with eight boundaries and a six gloriously uppercut over third off Akhtar) inside the first 10 overs.
At that stage, Australia was more than halfway to victory, Akhtar had been removed from the attack after being hit for 37 runs off four overs, and the Cup’s destiny was decided.
Gilchrist’s innings delighted his teammates after the destructive opener had endured a poor World Cup by his lofty standards. In nine previous innings in the tournament he’d only scored 170 runs, 69 of them against Bangladesh.
Waugh and head coach Geoff Marsh had noticed that Gilchrist had become noticeably more subdued as the tournament wore on, and extra effort had gone into helping him rediscover his form and lift his spirits.
It was Darren Lehmann who carved the winning boundary, and the game was done by early afternoon.
The celebration party, however, was a much longer affair.
The Aussies had been joined in the Lord’s dressing room by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke for a time, beside himself with glee, and darkness was closing in as Waugh and his team filed out of the Pavilion, through the famous Lord’s Long Room and out on to the pitch.
There, in front of stands empty but for Old Father Time on his wind vane, the gilded trophy was placed at the member’s end, Ponting hauled himself on to Tom Moody’s shoulders and the most rousing chorus of ‘Beneath the Southern Cross’ yet heard in St John’s Wood was bellowed into the night.
For Waugh and Tom Moody, this was a second World Cup triumph following the first title in 1987. For another seven members of the playing XI it was redemption for the defeat in the 1996 final to Sri Lanka. For Australia it was the first chapter in a golden era of dominance of the white-ball game.
Australia would not lose another ODI World Cup match again until 2011, and what started with Waugh’s goal of seven straight victories was eventually stretched to 34, with three successive titles picked up along the way.
Warne was man of the hour, and not even media questions about his future and plans for retirement could wipe the smile from his face. “I will take the next few weeks to decide which way I will go and have a good think about everything and enjoy winning the World Cup,” Warne told a news conference.
The team flew out the following day, affording the players a good chance to sleep off their hangovers from the all-night party that had doubled as McGrath’s bucks night, before landing back in Melbourne where Warne finally met his son Jackson and the players were given a heroes’ welcome. Thousands packed the city centre for a ticker-tape parade, with similar following suit a few days later in Sydney.
In between, Michael Bevan managed to have his team kit stolen and paid a ransom to retrieve it. The middle-overs finisher didn’t quite finish unpacking, leaving a kit bag that had gotten muddy and wet returning from the airport in Sydney rain outside the door of his apartment. With eight World Cup playing shirts and four bats all signed by the team plus two yellow batting lids amongst other gear taken, the $5000 Bevan handed over in a Sydney parking lot to get it back was a bargain.
Meanwhile, Warne had confided in Allan Border that he did indeed plan to retire, but his former captain had urged caution against making a rash decision. It proved wise counsel.
The loudest cheers from the estimated 100,000 crowd that had packed Melbourne’s centre to welcome home the World Cup winners were reserved for Warne, who basked in the attention.
“The parades were unbelievable and I remember sitting there with Stephen just thinking ‘wow, this is amazing’,” Warne later wrote. “They made me realise what I would be missing, the dressing room humour and sharing all the great times with my teammates. I was ready to fight if I had to. I knew in my hear that if I was 100 per cent fit I was the best spinner in Australia.”
The above includes extracts from The Wrong Line, a book written by cricket.com.au senior writer Andrew Ramsey, who was at the 1999 World Cup.
Australia’s 1999 World Cup
May 16: Beat Scotland by six wickets in Worcester
May 20: Lost to New Zealand by five wickets in Cardiff
May 23: Lost to Pakistan by 10 runs at Headingley
May 27: Beat Bangladesh by seven wickets at Chester-le-Street
May 30: Beat West Indies by six wickets at Old Trafford
June 4: Beat India by 77 runs at The Oval (Super Six)
June 9: Beat Zimbabwe by 44 runs at Lord’s (Super Six)
June 13: Beat South Africa by five wickets at Headingley (Super Six)
June 17: Tied with South Africa at Edgbaston (Semi-final)
June 20: Beat Pakistan by eight wickets at Lord’s (Final)