Prologue:
While it was a must win for Australia to keep their semifinal hopes alive having lost against neighboring Kiwis and the new comers Proteas. With one point in hand, it was India's third match in the series with one loss against the English and a rain-washed "no result" against neighboring Sri Lanka.
Batting first, Kangaroos posted 237 on board with Dean Jones scoring highest of 90 for the team; Kapil and Prabhakar bagging three wickets each. In response, Indians had a slow start with opener Ravi Shastri scoring only 25 of 67 balls and Srikkanth out for naught on his tenth ball.
Azharuddin played captains innings scoring 97 of 103 balls only and Manjrekar's quick 47 or 42 balls brought Indians close to the finish line with 13 required of last over. (Earlier rain had cut down three overs of their innings with target reduced by only 2 runs). Kiran more managed to hit two boundaries at fine leg and got out; Prabhakar followed soon.
Eventually Srinath and Raju were left at crease with 4 required of last ball.
The Incident:
Srinath skied the last ball to deep mid-wicket where Steve Waugh dropped the catch just inside the rope. Raju, who was running toward the bowler's end for second run saw the drop and as he finished running the second run he was pumping his fist in air. The third run would be quite easy; or at least as he thought. And the third run would have earned them a tie, knocking the host out of the tournament then and there (they would have played remaining league matches of course) and brightened the chances of India to reach semi-finals.
Steve Waugh who quickly raced to the ball, in the meanwhile, saw Raju pumping his fist in air at the beginning of third run as he gathered all his power to throw the ball at striker's end where stand in keeper David Boon was donning the gloves.
As if it was his desire to not to lose in front of the home crowd, the powerful throw was flat and quick and reached Boon almost immediately, giving him ample time to knock off the bails, finding a diving Raju just short of his crease.
Australia had won the match, snatched back victory from the jaws of a possible loss.
Raju's actions turned out to be a premature celebrations.
Epilogue:
Though they won the match, Australians didn't manage to secure a Semi-final berth either. After the match against India, they went on to lose against England and later on against Pakistan (the eventual Champions of the event). They managed to score victories against Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and finally against the WIndies, but their run rate wasn't good enough to take them to next round.
p.s. Do not forget to leave your comments; and if there is topic you want to suggest for me to write about, please feel free.
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