ICC Cricket World Cup South Africa 2003
Sachin & Vaas far ahead
The 2003 World Cup saw the entrance to the global stage of a lot of young players who are today at their peak, and those who have dominated the international arena. Champions Australia welcomed the monstrously athletic Andrew Symonds, who amazed crowds with huge sixes and by flying across the turf to catch and stop everything in sight. It was also the first Cup for Brett Lee and Shane Watson. Lee, one of the fastest bowlers on view and with Glenn McGrath, formed a potent opening partnership en route to becoming the second highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 22 wickets.
The explosive Virender Sehwag made his Cup debut for India and enjoyed moderate success, namely a fine innings of 82 in the final against Australia. His countrymen Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh also played their first, and each made valuable contributions to India reaching the final.
All-rounder Andrew Flintoff, England’s biggest star since Ian Botham, played his first World Cup. He could not really impress, as England did not make it past the first stage. Other notable newcomers to the scene were New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond, Pakistan’s star batsman Younis Khan, Sri Lanka’s future captains Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, and West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan.
In contrast to the new faces, it was the last World Cup for three of the greatest fast bowlers of all time: Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, and South African Allan Donald. It was also the farewell Cup for Sri Lankan great Aravinda de Silva, and South Africa’s last action hero Lance Klusener.
Indian great Sachin Tendulkar headed the run charts with 673 runs (one 100, six 50s) from eleven games and astonishingly, was 208 runs clear of his captain Sourav Ganguly at second place. Tendulkar’s 75-ball 98 in India’s victory against arch-rivals Pakistan at Centurion was vintage, devastating an attack that included the two Ws and Shoaib Akhtar.
Bizarrely, the highest score of the tournament belonged to Zimbabwean Craig Wishart who stroked an unbeaten 172 against Namibia at Harare.
The canny Sri Lankan swing bowler Chaminda Vaas led the wicket charts with 23 wickets from only ten games, creating a new Cup record for most wickets. He also accomplished the unprecedented feat of taking a hattrick off the first three balls of a match against Bangladesh at Pietermaritzburg. He took a wicket off the fifth ball of the over to make it four in the first over of the match, which was also a first.
McGrath, who was third in the bowling charts, boasted the tournament-best bowling analysis of seven for 15 against Namibia at Potchefstroom.
With 21 dismissals, Australian Adam Gilchrist was the top wicketkeeper of the World Cup.
