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ICC knock out tournament

© Sarosh Elahi

The mini world cup or the ICC knock out tournament as it was officially called was held in Nairobi from the 3rd of October to the 15th of October. The tournament included all nine test-playing nations plus new entrants Bangladesh and Kenya. The format of the tournament was that all the teams, which had qualified for the super series in the 99-world cup, were given the automatic birth in the quarterfinals where they were to meet the winners of the pre quarterfinals.

The pre quarterfinals featured relatively weaker teams, all the results were expected and no up set took place. The first quarterfinal saw Pakistan take on Srilanka, Pakistan out classed Srilanka in this match. The Srilankans were dismissed for 194 inside the 50 overs on a batting paradise. Pakis responded aggressively and reached the target easily. Saeed scored a century this was his first century after his century in the semi finals of world cup 99 against the kiwis. Thus Pakistanis easily booked their place in the finals.

Next came India vs. Australia, most of the fans backed the world champions. In this match Yuvraj Singh scored a brilliant 84 to guide India to a competitive target of 264, than Zaheer Khan did his job and took three important wickets. This took the Indians to cause a massive up set, and they won the match.

Next, SA played England and this time result came as it was expected and the Africans went on to win the match quite easily. SA easily reached the set target of 184 by losing just two wickets.

Perhaps the most evenly balanced match of the quarterfinals was the one between the Kiwis and the Zimbabweans. The Kiwis batted well and scored a good total of 260. The Zimbabweans initially gave a good response with the help of their front line batsman Alistair Campbell, who started by playing brilliantly until umpire gave a LBW decision against him and he was sent back in the pavilion. This was a blunder made by the umpire Steve Bucknor because the replays clearly showed that ball was going leg side and thus the decision was wrong. Campbell showed his anger over the decision and in response he faced a one-match suspension. Eventually the Zimbabweans went on to lose the match, and thus were knocked out of the tournament, too.