Cricket World Cup’s oops moments

For a cricket enthusiast every match is a good match and when it is a match at the World Cup the question of good or bad just doesn’t arise. Afterall, it is THE World Cup! However, there are some matches with bizarre outcomes that are remembered for the longest time.

At the ongoing World Cup the match in which Ireland beat England by three wickets at Bangalore on March 2, 2011 history was made. Everyone thought that the match was in England’s grip with a 327 for eight on the score board and Ireland struggling at 111 for five. But then Kevin O'Brien’s century in 50-balls ended up becoming the fastest in the cup’s history and took Ireland to a crackling win.

But the Ireland match is not the only one to have ended in an unexpected way, many consider the India Vs West Indies match in 1983 at Lord’s on June 25 an unexpected win.

That is the first and the only time India lifted the World Cup by defeating two time champions West Indies by 43 runs. The West Indies had contained India at 183 and were looking all set to win till Viv Richards was caught by Kapil Dev at 33 off 28 balls. The rest was done by Mohinder Amarnath’s medium pace bowling and he took three wickets for 12 runs in seven overs.

The same year Zimbabwe beat Australia by 13 runs at Nottingham on June 9. The most surprising element of the match was the fact that this was Zimbabwe’s first ODI and they beat Australia that boasted of greats like David Hookes, Allan Border, Rod Marsh, Jeff Lawson, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. Duncan Fletcher was the man to whom all the credit goes. He hit 69 runs and took four wickets for 42 from 11 overs.

Another interesting match involving Zimbabwe was played in Albury on March 18, 1992 when Zimbabwe beat England by nine runs. England were all out for 125 against Zimbabwe’s 134 run target and made this outcome one of the most bizarre.

And what happened at the Kenya Vs West Indies match in Pune, Feb 29, 1996 is also worthy of mention. West Indies lost to Kenya by 73 as just two players even reached double digit scores. Kenya set a target of 166 and West Indies were all out for 93. Beat that!

Since, Ireland is in news it reminds one of the match where it defeated Pakistan by three wickets using the D/L method at Jamaica on March 17, 2007. This was the year when Pakistan’s English coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in his Kingston hotel room and made headlines across the world.

Talking of headlines – the match between Bangladesh and Pakistan in Northampton on May 31, 1999 was headline material for India’s neighbours on both sides. Bangladesh beat Pakistan by 62 runs as Pakistan’s first five batsmen got out for 9, 2, 0, 7 and 5 runs! There were a lot of allegations and conspiracy angles dug up later but the match result was pretty baffling in itself.