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DATE : 21-04-1999

VENUE : Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana

MATCH : 5th ODI

Writer : Karthik Narayan

It is most often seen that the most exciting cricket matches are the ones in which the result is a TIE – a situation where both the teams really grit their teeth to the end and yet both teams feel they could have won the game! So near yet so far!

Our quest to identify tied matches takes us to the year 1999 for ODI No.1440, a game between Australia and West Indies. This was the 5th match of the series and also the most important of the series tied at 2-2 till now (7 match series).

Match Conditions:
This was a rain shortened match – one of the few rain shortened TIED matches in cricket! It was down to 30 overs a side.

Toss:
Australia after winning the toss in overcast conditions decided to grant their bowlers a shot at the WI batsmen first to make use of the pitch conditions.

West Indies' Innings:

Steve Waugh’s plans to get early wickets and peg back the West Indies took the back seat as Ridley Jacobs and Sherwin Campbell played good shots to give their team the right impetus to march ahead. But Shane Lee showed both of them back to the dressing room one after another as soon as he came on to bowl as second change within the first fifteen.

Jimmy Adams and Carl Hooper weren’t in the perfect form to really step on the gas, both were dismissed by Warne. By 18 overs, the Caribbeans were 101/4. Chanderpaul, Stuart Williams and Phil Simmons played responsibly and got quick runs as well – thus enabling the home team to post 173/5 after their stipulated 30 overs.

Australia's Innings:

Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist had to contend with Mervin Dillon and Courtney Walsh first up. Mark Waugh found runs hard to come, and lost his wicket early to a good delivery from Dillon. Ponting was cleaned all ends up with a great delivery first ball to face – Dillon struck twice in the fifth over to push Australia a little back.

But Gilchrist is an attacking batsman who doesn’t care for the situation, he just thumps the ball when it is there to be hit, and Walsh and Dillon had to grunt now and then with him going haywire. Darren Lehmann came and went adding a paltry 24 runs to the total. With regular wickets going down and the run rates creeping up, Gilchrist’s stunning knock came in handy to Australia. It was to a run out that he lost his wicket, otherwise no bowler looked like getting him out at all.

With Gilchrist being dismissed early, the Australians did struggle to make runs. Steve Waugh had to play a skipper’s innings now. He played himself early on, but soon found his timing going well, and scored runs ever at over a run a ball.

Again, quick wickets give any heart many flutters – as 3 wickets collapsed in the space of 3 runs, Waugh showed cold steeled heart and guts as he always does and continued the battle to the finish.

In the end, it became very close with run rates hovering always over a run a ball – a short burst of hard hitting by the Number Nine Batsman Shane Warne really provided that run flow in the end. If Australia came till the last over, it was purely due to Steve Waugh. He played beautifully scoring singles, rotating the strike and also scoring boundaries whenever the run rates creeped up. Hats off to this super performer as he once again pulled back his team from a precarious situation. But pressure for both teams boiled to a high that they couldn’t really take. Australia couldn’t make it in the end and coming to close to a win, couldn’t get that one big strike for a boundary or even a run more! The match ended with scores of both teams being same – 173.
 

In the end, the match ended in a magical tie – a result so unexpected seeing the start of the match. This match was a pure evidence of the glorious uncertainties that rule this game of bat and ball.

Steve Waugh was the hero for Australia and for West Indies it was Mervin Dillon. Both played the match with so much passion and both deserved very much to share the man of the match award.

This ends yet another edition of Cricketfundas.com’s And it’s a Tie! Once again, the year 1999 emulated the year 1997 for three tied matches in the same year.
 

Brief Scores :

30 Overs Match

WI 173/5 (Ridley Jacobs 33 Stuart Campbell 41 Stuart Williams 30*, Shane Lee 3/39 Shane Warne 2/35) tied with Aus 173/7 (Gilchrist 44 Steve Waugh 72, Mervyn Dillon 3/25 Phil Simmons 2/25)

 

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