World Cup - 1992

The fifth World Cup was hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand and was called the Benson and Hedges World Cup. South Africa after a long ban entered the World Cup this time. Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, SriLanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe and South Africa competed for this World Cup.

This World Cup was very different from the past World Cups. It was the first World Cup which had day/night matches, white cricket balls and coloured team uniforms. It also had a controversial system of recalculating team totals for a reduced number of overs for matches affected by rain. Pinch hitters were used by teams to score fast in the initial 15 overs to take full advantage of the field restrictions. Also New Zealand introduced spin in the opening overs to confuse the opposition.

Unlike the other World Cups, the format also changed because of the inclusion of a ninth team. So the team were not divided into groups. But each team had to play against all the other teams participating in the World Cup. It was called Round Robin. In all 36 matches were required to complete the first stage of the World Cup. The top four teams qualified for the semifinals.

In one of the semifinals, South Africa lost to England in a controversial circumstances, when after a rain delay, due to calculations, they had to score 21 runs from 1 ball. In the other semifinals Pakistan beat New Zealand by chasing 262 runs to enter the finals of this World Cup. Surprisingly, Pakistan had won only one match and had qualified for the semifinals.

Pakistan played England in the Finals, in which they scored 249 in 50 overs. England were bowled out for 227 in 49.2 overs. This was possible because of the magnificent bowling performance from Wasim Akram, who took three crucial wickets towards the end of the England innings.

Fifth World Cup was then lifted by Pakistan under the captaincy of Imran Khan.