Raju's premature celebration and Steve Waugh's recovery

Raju won the battle, lost the Waugh

Peter English

Down to the wire

Background

Jones, Moody and McDermott all played their part in a nail-biting triumph © Getty Images

Rain stripped three overs from India's chase and with a ball remaining, they needed four to win and three to tie. Another loss for Australia, who had already been defeated by New Zealand and thrashed by South Africa, would have been terminal in their backyard defence of the trophy. Mohammad Azharuddin's 93 cancelled out Dean Jones' 90, which pushed Australia to 237, and Sanjay Manjrekar's 42-ball 47 gave India hope. Thirteen runs were wanted from the last over, but after Kiran More's two fours it was left to the final pair of Javagal Srinath and Venkatapathy Raju.

Moment

Tom Moody loped in and watched Srinath slog cleanly to deep midwicket and Steve Waugh. "In my eagerness to take the match-winning catch I over-ran the chance," Waugh wrote in his autobiography. "I had too much time to take the catch, which gave me jelly legs and unhinged my composure." Racing to pick up the ball, he saw Raju pump his fist as he collected the second and turned for the third - and the tie. "Fuming from my clumsiness and driven by the cockiness of Raju's gesture, I launched a bounce throw laced with anger to David Boon with all the force I had in me and ran the batsman out."

Boundary view - Peter English

Waugh's throw might have had all the power of a missile, but it seemed to take forever to arrive as it trailed towards Boon in front of the Moreton Bay fig backdrop. Boon was covering for Ian Healy, who tore a hamstring against South Africa, and his waddle to flick off the bails was a bizarre conclusion to a third sloppy Australian performance. As the ball sailed to Waugh there was relief that it was heading to safety - and then horror when he spilled it. His run-out was the fourth in the innings, which also included a beautiful side-arm throw from Craig McDermott, and there was misguided belief that Waugh's quick recovery would lead to a reinvigorated Australia.

What happened next

There was no kick-start to the local campaign as they missed the semi-finals by a point. India finished seventh.

Peter English is the Australasian editor of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo

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Matches

Australia v India at Brisbane

Players/Umpires

David Boon

Tom Moody

Venkatapathy Raju

Javagal Srinath

Steve Waugh

Series/Tournaments

ICC World Cup