World Cup (cricket): 1992
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Contents |
1992
Venue: Australia and New Zealand
Uniform of players: A different coloured uniform for each eam
Colour of balls: white
Hours of play: day/night
Participating teams: Participating teams: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies , Zimbabwe
South African participated for the first time.
Winners: Pakistan, defeating England in the finals.
India vs Pakistan
IANS | Feb 12, 2015 India vs Pakistan: World Cup history <>Mail Today Bureau March 30, 2011 | India vs Pakistan world cup semi finals: Rivalry over the years <>The Times of India Feb 14 2015 A FABLED RIVALRY
MARCH 4,1992
(League Tie)
Sydney Cricket Ground
India (216/7), Pakistan (173 all out), India won by 43 runs
Man of the Match: S Tendulkar (54 NO, 137)
After four World Cups, it was the first time that the two nations met at a World Cup match. India, buoyed by a young and emerging Sachin Tendulkar's fine unbeaten knock of 54 runs, and Ajay Jadeja's 46 and a quickfire 35 off 26 balls by Kapil Dev helped India post 216 and bowled out Pakistan for 173 to register a convincing victory.
young Sachin Tendulkar then rolled his arm to bowl 10 good overs, which also included the wicket of Aamir Sohail as Pakistan fell short of the target.Pakistan seemed to be on course for a win with Aamer Sohail (62) and Javed Miandad (40) adding 88 for the third wicket but once that stand was broken, they fell apart to be bowled out for 173.
Javed Miandad reacted to Kiran More's gestures
Irritated with Kiran More's constant chirping from behind the wickets, Javed Miandad jumped like a frog to imitate.
Brief scores:
India 216 in 49 overs (A Jadeja 46, M Azharuddin 32, V Kambli 24, S Tendulkar 54no, K Dev 35; M Ahmed 3/59, A Javed 2/28)
Pakistan 173 in 48.1 overs (A Sohail 62, J Miandad 40; K Dev 2/30, M Prabhakar 2/22, J Srinath 2/37).
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Ayaz Memon India Today February 5, 2015 | World Cup highlights: When the greats got going
60 runs
37 balls.
Fours-7
Sixes- 1
At the start of the World Cup in 1991-92 when Imran Khan called Inzamam-ul-Haq the most exciting young batsman in the game, there were sniggers all around. But not for the first time, his gut instinct was proved right.
Until the semi-final against New Zealand though, Inzy had done little of note. New Zealand posted 262. By the time Inzamam walked out to bat at no. 6, the asking run rate had climbed to more than 8 per over. For the next hour there was mayhem as he made 60 off just 37 deliveries. By the time he was run out (a foretaste of what was to be a signature way of being dismissed throughout his career), Pakistan had more than covered the run rate, had not lost wickets, and could coast through to an improbable win.
1992 WC SEMI-FINAL || New Zealand v Pakistan || AUCKLAND
Henry Blofeld recalls (The Times of India):
New Zealand looked odds on to reach the final when they posted 262 against Pakistan. That was the first time we had heard of dear old Inzamam. He was still only a teenager then, and came in with Pakistan in real trouble. He hit 60 off in quick time to win the game for Pakistan. Given his youth and the situation, it was one of the finest World Cup performances in history .I remember Auckland being silenced and my colleagues in the commentary box couldn't believe what had happened. I really think New Zealand would have gone on to win the tournament if they had won that game. Paki stan of course went on to beat England in the final. This was the first World Cup with coloured clothes, and I can still see a dashing Imran Khan in his lime green pyjamas holding the trophy aloft.
How Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup
Raj Chengappa and Ayaz Memon | India Today June 15, 2013 REVEALED! How Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup
The 1992 World Cup is really the story of how a ragged Pakistani team, that was almost eliminated during the preliminary rounds, transformed itself into a champion side. How a strong captain, driven by deep-seated ambition and a noble mission, inspired his team to greater heights.
The Cup also rewrote how the one-day game would be played in the future. The big hitters came to the fore. Innovative and daring strategies became the norm-to success. Consistent performance rather than stray brilliance was the key. And the final spoils went to those who were willing to do or die for the team.
For India, despite having some of the most talented players in the world, the Cup turned out to be a disaster. Led by a mild captain, the team seemed to be constantly at odds with itself. This is the story of how Pakistan triumphed and why India failed.
Scene 1. Sydney. March 4. Inside the sparse dressing-room of the Sydney Cricket Ground, Imran Khan, the Pakistan captain, had never looked so dispirited. His team had just been beaten convincingly by the Indians and the way the Pakistanis had been playing in the Cup till that point made their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals look bleak. As Imran said: "We are just not getting our combination right. And it's going to be an uphill struggle for us."
Scene 2. Melbourne, March 25. Shouts of "Jeeve Jeeve (Long Live) Pakistan" emanated constantly from the Pakistan dressing-room. Javed Miandad could be seen dancing excitedly and slapping palms with Mushtaq Ahmed and Wasim Akram occasionally.
Jubilant Cup winnersImran, an indulgent smile on his face, swayed away from his jubilant colleagues and strode into the conference room to address some 200 media men from all over the world. He glanced amusedly at the two giant unopened champagne bottles - denied to them because of Islamic injunctions - that had been kept ready for an English victory.
And then said in his usual measured tones: " Today I asked the team to behave like a cornered tiger. To go out and fight. To snarl. And they responded magnificently."
If it was Kapil's Devils that took the cricketing world by storm in 1983, it was Imran's Tigers that snarled their way to one of the greatest cricketing coups in the modern era.
In the space of 14 heart-stopping days, where every match could have been sudden death for the team, Imran and his band of green warriors transformed themselves from a rag-tag, injury-stricken unit to an invincible fighting machine.
And under the surreal glare of floodlights, when they defeated England by 22 runs in a tense final at Melbourne, they earned the right to be called the world champions of limited-over cricket.
True, their meteoric rise to cricket's pinnacle of glory had more to it than just an amazing resurrection. There was a large slice of luck or what the Pakistanis call the "Allah factor".
For instance, a crucial match against England in the preliminary rounds was washed away by rain just when Pakistan seemed certain to lose. Their entry into the semifinals was also largely due to below par performances by Australia, West Indies and India.
The hype and hoopla went right up to the finalsBut to Pakistan goes the real credit of performing at their peak and withstanding intense pressure during crucial games while their three main rivals for the fourth spot floundered.
For, despite being almost out of the tournament, with three defeats, a tie and a pyrrhic victory against Zimbabwe, they played intelligent cricket to bamboozle former world champions Australia in a crucial encounter at Perth.
After the match, Imran said: "We were beginning to get our combination right and I told the boys that from now on let's go for a do-or-die effort."
It was around midway through the World Cup and it was the period when the teams and their captains began to, in some ways, rewrite the way one-day cricket was to be played. Big hitters like Mark Greatbatch, Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq were not afraid to give the bowling a charge and came up with stunning results.
With most teams being equal, it was a Cup that ensured that teams which grasped the basics of batting, bowling and fielding were more likely to succeed. As Deryck Murray, the West Indies team manager, observed: "Only those teams and captains who paid attention to detail in the six hours of play and showed absolute concentration, won matches."
With nine nations in the fray, teams that rapidly altered game strategies according to their opponents were the ones that recorded most successes.
Gooch flooring an Imran skier proved costly for England and gave Pakistan the edgeThus while West Indies played raggedly through the initial matches, against India they decided to stop giving away too many extras, to bowl a nagging length and attack the Indian bowlers from the word go. India on the other hand did not innovate and paid the penalty.
Strangely, Australia, that had seemed invincible before the Cup began, was on the wrong foot right through the Cup. Allan Border, the team's vocal captain, never seemed to stop shaking his curly head in bewilderment as the team crashed from one defeat to the next.
Said Border: "We looked jaded right through. We should have prepared much better for the Cup. Instead we went off the boil too early."
THE key to success was also as West Indies captain Richie Richardson points out:"Consistency in all departments. It was not just outstanding players but how they play as a team that really mattered."
While the top two teams, England and New Zealand, showed plenty of consistency, teams like West Indies, Australia and India were as erratic as Sydney's weather. That seemed to give Pakistan, which at one stage looked certain to be out of the Cup, a major chance to qualify.
But it was more than just the ineptitude of other teams that saw Pakistan claim the Cup. For what the game called for, apart from consistency, was an extraordinary captain: someone who knew when to use the element of surprise. Could adopt a variety of tactics. Had plenty of nerve and cunning.
Just refused to panic under pressure. And was able to inspire his team and lead it from the front. And in Imran they had one such outstanding example.
New-find Inzamam-ul-Haq saw Pakistan through with a 100-plus strike rateAs Asif Iqbal, a former Pakistani captain, said: He kept trying out new things, new combinations, new batting orders, though things initially were not going his way. In such situations, most skippers play safe but Imran was willing to dare."
Martin Crowe was Imran's only rival to such praise, but the Pakistani skipper had the edge and it was not just in experience. In the twilight of his career, Imran had been fired by a mission to build a hospital to treat cancer patients after his mother succumbed to the disease.
He needed to collect money, lots of it, and could get donations only if he stayed in the international limelight, shepherding his team. Also for him the Cup would be the crowning achievement of a brilliant career.
As Crowe said after Pakistan defeated New Zealand in two successive matches, the last in the semi-finals at Auckland: "The difference was Imran had something to strive for apart from the deep-seated ambition to win the World Cup. And his team mates had the desire to win."
Rarely has a single individual been able to inspire a team to such great heights. But Imran is an institution by himself. In Pakistan his word is law in first-class cricket. He handpicks his players and then backs them even through lean patches.
Inzamam is his find. So are Mushtaq, Aamir Sohail, Zahid Fazal, Aaquib Javed and Wasim Akram. In dressing-room discussions during the Cup his voice boomed over closed doors as he yelled at wayward players and goaded them to perform better.
Under Imran's fiery leadership, the volatile Pakistani team overnight became the hot favourites to win the Cup. Their strike bowlers, Wasim Akram and Aaquib Javed, were in full flow. And leg spinner Mushtaq produced the crafty edge. Their batting had depth despite Salim Malik's continued failure.
Rameez Raja was stroking the ball well. Despite being out of form, Javed Miandad used his vast experience and his doughty spirit to provide the solidity in the middle. And he inspired big hitters like new-find Inzamam to come up with some amazing feats. The team also started lifting its shoddy fielding.
Done in by the controversial rain rule, South Africa sadly bowed out of the Cup in the semisEngland, till then the most professional team in the tournament, found most of their players fall into the injured list as the Cup's gruelling pace began to take its toll.
South Africa, the only other team to match Pakistan's volatility, bowed out of the Cup in a controversial rain-affected semi-final against England. The storm over the rain rule, that gave undue advantage to the side batting first, broke out and left a pall of unpleasantness over the Cup.
By then Pakistan seemed unstoppable. They had begun playing like zealots who were willing to do or die. And the English showed no such fervour. The result: Pakistan are now world champions of one-day cricket for the next four years. Imran can have his cancer hospital. And perhaps a monument for himself in his home city of Lahore.
Imran Khan,Inzamam ul Haq and Wasim Akram
Feb 08 2015
Osman Samiuddin rewinds to the 1992 World Cup when a pouncing tiger became the touchstone for a team's success
By most standards he probably left it too late, but by Pakistan’s, Imran Khan managed to time it just right. By the time his side arrived in Perth to take on Australia at the 1992 World Cup, they had won just one of their first five matches and were, in the words of one player, walking dead. Never one of life’s great communicators, Imran had become ever more distant during the tournament; a chronic shoulder injury kept his physical involvement intermittent and his can cer hospital project was the primary motivation of his off-field life.
He was leading in battered body -as fierce in some training sessions as he always was -but in spirit and soul, he was absent. `I think there's a big communication problem in the team at the moment,' Wasim Akram revealed at the time...Nor was he a great orator, though he at least possessed the baritone for it.But now, in Perth, he gathered his men in the dressing room before the game, wearing a white T-shirt with a tiger-ready to pounce--imprinted on it. Something about the direness of the situation stirred him. `Maybe he thought that he could not be humiliated this badly , that he could not get this low in life, that God will not drop him so low,' remembers Aaqib Javed, who, in a tournament where Pakistan veered so wildly , was a stabilizing centre of gravity in their bowling attack. `So after this, with so much crap around us, we can only win.There is nothing else left. I don't know where he got this feeling from, I really don't know, but he came into the dressing room. He came in wearing the Tshirt. Maybe, he just thought, let's try one final time.'.... Imran spoke to each player and told them to look inside themselves, to understand that they were the best players in the world...He told them that he knew--not just thought--but that he knew and believed that Pakistan will win the World Cup. `I know we will win it.' What he did was transmit his self belief to the rest of the squad, a monumental feat which doesn’t just happen.
This transplantation was the accumulation of a career, a life, of every single day of success, and unchallenged authority, of every time he returned to captaincy automatically, of every time he refused to play when it was too hot, or against too weak a side. It was the cumulative effect of a decade of Imran as captain, hero and icon, distilled in one talk.
The impact was greatest on the younger players, like Aaqib and Mush taq Ahmed, who had grown up idolizing Imran and were now disciples to his beneficent Svengali. Others were less moved. Javed Miandad makes no mention of it in his autobiography. Another senior member said it was just the `usual geeing-up-talk shit...“
The fact remains though that Pakistan's upturn began from precisely the morning of that Australia game. `All I know is that after those fifteen minutes, when the match began, the way I went into that ground, I haven't had that feeling ever before and I never had it again after,' Aaqib says. ...`In those fifteen minutes... life changed.' In a rare bit of common sense planning, Pakistan arrived at the fifth World Cup three weeks early to acclimatize to conditions...But from very early, the tournament unfolded like a great impending disaster, a series of small screwups all snowballing into one massive one. The situation was, in one sense, typical of the contrariness of Pakistan: arriving early to prepare better, but that eagerness turning into a curse. To begin, Pakistan had travelled to Australia initially without Javed Miandad, their best batsman and their greatest ODI batsman ever. Officially, he had not been picked because of a back strain…But this being Miandad, conspiracies were constantly stewing around him.
The decision not to pick him, he wrote in his autobiography, was the re sult of an ongoing dispute with Imran, which on the surface was a strategic one about his position in the batting order...
Less paranoid reasons did exist, such as his form before the tournament…But the exclusion was also short-lived. Miandad…is said to have worked various political favours to find his way back in.
He didn’t need to work too hard because Pakistan, and specifically their batting, was abysmal in the warm-up games...
Including the two first-class games (one of which they nearly lost), Pakistan won just one of their six warm-up matches. That began a tournament start in which they won just a solitary game in their first five (and that too against Zimbabwe, who then were yet to become the formidable side of the late 1990s)… So low did they get, it was difficult to know which was the lowest. Was it the 74 all out to England in Adelaide, where rain rescued an improbable point for them? It could have been the loss to India in Sydney three days later, with all the baggage that contest carries. Maybe it was the South Africa game, in which the ominous dark, grey clouds over Brisbane seemed to reflect Pakistan’s mood and prospects and in which they were at their most shambolic in the field.
No two successive elevens were the same. They didn’t know their best batting order (Inzamam-ul-Haq opened and played one down, Fazal opened as well).
Miandad developed debilitating gastritis after the India loss and missed the South Africa game. Malik was being pushed up and down the order. The bowling threatened but was schizoid, typified by Akram’s six wickets and twenty wides in those five games. Akram was so despondent that he had watched Naked Gun 2 ½ and Backdraft four times already.
So bad was it that in Imran’s absence, players were refusing to take the captaincy. ‘...This was how low the team had fallen: Miandad unfit, Imran – shoulder injury, Malik batting like a number eleven, Ijaz as bowler, Mushy and Wasim both struggling, Inzi in really bad shape. There wasn’t one guy who was doing anything,' Aaqib recalls.
Once Imran had said his bit before the Australia game--for a nation conceived in blood, not unused to wars, it is hardly surprising such a leonine speech tugs so forcefully on the imagination--Pakistan's disparate galaxies and stars and planets began to pull together into one universe....After Imran's talk and the Australia win, the team's mood totally changed.' Once qualification was assured, Akram and others went out for a celebra tory meal. On return, Akram wrote a note to the taxi driver, signed and dated.It read: Pakistan will win the World Cup.
The most uncertain moments came in the semi-final against the home side and overwhelming favourites, New Zealand...It almost cost them when Martin Crowe put together a spectacular innings, helping New Zealand reach 262.Pakistan looked out of the match for a major duration of the chase--their top order was solid, but couldn't keep up with the required run-rate--until Inzamam arrived and with him, destiny: it was a literal and metaphorical arrival.
The young Multani had pleaded with Imran to drop him from the side on the morning of the match, as much because of illness as his confidence being shot after a poor tournament. `Imran told him, “Are you mad? I am telling you to play , so just play ,“' Aaqib recounts.
..So Inzy did play and so was forged his twilight surge, fulfilling Imran's prophecy that he was a batsman among the best. His form also paralleled his team's late, successful swell: his 60 off 37 balls won the semi-final and his 42 in the final set it up.
Imran again roused his men on the morning of the final, one last time invoking the cornered tiger. He wore the Tshirt to the toss. At 39, he was older than his English counterpart Graham Gooch by just a few months, but looked fresh, upbeat and honed enough to be his son.In reality , it hardly mattered what Imran said to his men that morning because precisely how conspired the universe was in Pakistan's favour was on clear, unashamed display through that late March day and night in Melbourne... As Pakistan walked off the field for the presentations, an end was beginning. Unbeknown, this was not a harbinger for a golden age.
Where India's 1983 triumph opened the country's eyes to one-day cricket, where Australia's 1987 win began a renaissance, where Sri Lanka's triumph in 1996 became their graduation to the big league, Pakistan's win in 1992 heralded only the unravelling of their fragile unity and a cantankerous, ramshackle descent into chaos. It brought to a close a period where Pakistan were as good as they have ever been.
Wasim Akram on Pakistan’s triumph
We could feel a divine force was behind us
Wasim Akram India Today February 5, 2015 |
Wasim Akram was the Man of the Match in the 1992 World Cup final
As a side, we [Pakistan] were doing quite well in one-day cricket in the late 1980s. We had won the Nehru Cup in 1989 and the Australasia Cup in 1990. We had the confidence that any top-six side has going into a World Cup. I remember (captain) Imran Khan took us to Australia three-four weeks before the World Cup.
We would do 10 laps of the MCG-we used to sprint-then I would bowl and field for two hours. Basically we would train for five-six hours every day. Imran wanted us to get supremely fit before the World Cup. That was the reason for all the hard work.
Before the start of the tournament we lost my strike partner and then the fastest bowler in the world, Waqar Younis. In the practice matches, Waqar complained of a back problem. It was later diagnosed as stress fracture of the back. Waqar and I had formed a very good partnership, so it was a big loss to me when he had to pull out of the tournament.
We lost the first couple of practice matches. But we did not lose hope. Then the tournament started with the match at the MCG and the West Indies were our first opponents. We got 200-odd, yet we lost the match. The second match was against Zimbabwe which was an easy win for us.
Then we went to Adelaide for the match that literally turned the tournament around for us. It was raining that day in Adelaide. The ball usually does not seam in Adelaide but that day it was, as we were bowled out for just 74. Adelaide is one of the driest cities in Australia, but that whole day it kept drizzling. We struggled a lot as a batting unit as England really tied us in knots with their accurate bowling. England's seam bowlers used the conditions very well. But still we got one point out of nowhere as rain washed out play and we felt relieved. Our captain kept saying from the start that we will win the World Cup. He seemed to have that confidence in us more than we did ourselves.
Since I was struggling to control the white ball, I was bowling too many wides and sometimes overstepping too. Before our match against Australia in Perth, I woke up to read the local newspaper and went to the sports page. I saw big screaming headlines which read something to the effect of 'Imran wants Wasim to bowl just quick, forget about no-balls and wide balls'. That worked like magic for me as I saw it as an opportunity to prove to my captain that I can deliver on his belief. From there on, my confidence went up. After the World Cup, when I spoke to Imran, he said that was done to get me pumped up. It did work wonders as I bowled with renewed vigour with the new ball and was really quick in the final few matches.
We were to play New Zealand in our last league match. Now, New Zealand were on a roll, having won seven of their previous league matches on the trot. Their eighth match was against us. This is where my confidence shot up further as I picked up four wickets including the likes of Andrew Jones and the very dangerous Martin Crowe. Rameez Raja was in top form in the tournament and he got his second hundred in that league match against New Zealand. We did not have much to chase down, but Rameez played a very cultured knock as we eased to a win.
Our confidence was now sky-high because we started believing in ourselves. We had to play New Zealand in the semi-finals and were now confident of beating them yet again. Just imagine, New Zealand had won seven of their eight league matches, lost just once-and that too to us!
We had the best wishes of the whole of Pakistan. It was the month of Ramzan and people were fasting and were up all night in Pakistan. They were praying for us, watching us as we moved into the semis. We could feel a divine force was behind us as we played the semi-final.
Interestingly, Inzy (Inzamam-ul-Haq) was throwing up a night before the semi-final and did not appear to be in a condition to play. But Imran insisted that Inzy should play despite his fever. What happened in the semi-final, we all know. Inzy just went berserk as he showed the full range of his strokes. We had a stiff target of 263 but Inzamam came at the right time and was well guided by the experienced Javed Miandad.
We now had to play the most experienced one-day side, England, in the final. They play so much one-day cricket in the county circuit and have so much experience because of that. But we knew that if we make it to the final, we can win the tournament. We had that kind of confidence.
We were warming up at the MCG before the final. In those days, we would get just a playing kit and tracksuit, nothing more. If we needed training gear and so on, we had to go out and buy it ourselves. I went and bought a T-shirt which said 'Just do it', Imran bought a T-shirt with a tiger on it. In the team talk before the final, Imran said we are cornered tigers. We were all young and had no idea what he meant. Then he said it in simple words: when a tiger is cornered, it attacks. That's what we need to do. Then it was easier to understand.
In the final, it was a brave decision by a subcontinental captain to bat first. Imran promoted himself to number three to control the innings. He just held one end up with Javed. They both batted sensibly, kept the scoreboard ticking and laid the foundation for big hitting at the end. That was the perfect thing for Inzy and myself because we just went out and smashed it. In the end we made 249.
We knew that we had a total that we could defend. England lost some early wickets but we had to contend with a sticky partnership between Neil Fairbrother and Allan Lamb. They were two very dangerous one-day players. In the second water break, Imran came to me and said, try putting your everything into it, get a bit of reverse swing and give me a two-over burst. I told the captain, no worries, I can do that, but I will try that with Lamb since Fairbrother is my team mate at Lancashire and knows all my tricks.
I told Imran I would bowl outswing to Lamb and get him to play and get him bowled. Imran said try around the wicket. That day I must have had the backing of god-when I bowled, the ball pitched on a length near the off-stump and he was castled. We celebrated like the World Cup was ours. The next ball to Chris Lewis was planned. I tried bowling a yorker because the batsman had assumed that I will bowl an inswinging delivery. I tried to bowl with reverse swing. I was just 24-25, and had the confidence to run in with pace. It was a dream come true, as I got Lewis with that delivery. You don't realise what you have when you play. But now, more than 10 years after retiring, I realise what I did that day.
When we finally won the World Cup, it took some time for us to realise the achievement. When Rameez took the catch it was an unbelievable moment. We did not sleep that night! It took me two days to realise what we had done. It was only when we landed in Lahore did the whole achievement sink in. The journey from Lahore airport to the hotel, which usually takes about 20 minutes, took us seven hours. We were taken on an open-top bus. It felt like the whole of Pakistan had descended on the city.
The same thing happened in Karachi, Pindi (Rawalpindi), Peshawar. I had never seen anything like that in my entire career. That feeling of being a champion was something different. The whole country was happy and united in celebrating with us.
That tournament in 1992 was also exciting because of the fact that we were playing in coloured clothing with two new white balls. We played South Africa for the first time in the tournament. It was an eye-opener. Who can forget that Jonty (Rhodes) run out of Inzy! That was an iconic picture that we can never forget. They were out of international cricket for 21 years but still made it to the semi-final. It was a dream return to international cricket for them. What I remember most about South Africa is their fielding, which was phenomenal.
Fascinating facts about World Cups
Author: MS Ramakrishnan, Bangalore, Thu, Jan 22 2015 CricBuzz 1 <>CricBuzz 2 <>CricBuzz 3 <>CricBuzz 4 <>CricBuzz 5
1988: A captain who returned from retirement to win a World Cup Pakistan's World Cup winning captain Imran Khan returned to international cricket in 1988 after announcing his retirement the previous year. It was at the request of the Pakistani President, General Zia-Ul-Haq, that the all-rounder represented the country again. Eventually, his inspirational captaincy gave Pakistan their first World Cup.
1992: Inspirational Imran asks Inzi to forget fever and play the semifinal After suffering from high fever on the night before Pakistan's 1992 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand, Inzamam-ul-Haq told captain Imran Khan that he was not 100% sure of playing the game. However, Imran simply asked him to think about playing the semifinal and nothing else. Inzamam played the match and smashed a stunning 37-ball 60 and was adjudged the Man of the Match.
1992: Spinners can't take the new ball? In the 1992 World Cup, Dipak Patel proved that spinners could be a surprise weapon with the new ball. Opening the bowling, the Kenyan-born off-spinner, who played for Worcestershire, before moving to New Zealand, was the most economical bowler in the tournament (for a minimum of 15 overs bowled). His figures in the tournament read: 79-8-245-8 at an economy rate of 3.10.
See also
World Cup (cricket): history <>World Cup (cricket): 1975 <>World Cup (cricket): 1979 <>World Cup (cricket): 1983 <>World Cup (cricket): 1987 <>World Cup (cricket): 1992 <>World Cup (cricket): 1996 <>World Cup (cricket): 1999 <>World Cup (cricket): 2003 <>World Cup (cricket): 2007 <>World Cup (cricket): 2011 <>World Cup (cricket): 2015 <>World Cup (cricket): 2019 <>World Cup (cricket): 2023
