How Kenya reached the 2003 WC semi-final #euphoriacricket
- 7 months ago
A wise man once said Nothing is certain in cricket except its uncertainty, and it is the most appropriate statement I have ever heard about cricket. one of those uncertainties happened on 18th March 2003, when Kenya played in the semi-final of the 2003 WC.
Kenya is an associate nation but they have delivered some amazing performances through the years and I kid you not when I say this, but this team has defeated India twice in ODIs. Although their most significant achievement in the cricketing world is when they qualified for the 2003 WC.
The 2003 Cricket World Cup will be remembered for the antics of one team – Kenya. The World Cup was hosted by the African teams South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Everyone expected the South Africans to go the farthest or maybe even win it. But it was not to be as they were eliminated in the first round. It was the Kenyans who surprised everyone by reaching the semi-finals.
In a group comprising teams like South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Canada, and Bangladesh, it was almost taken for granted that the top test-playing nations would proceed to the Super Six stage. Two of them did, but the third one was a non-test-playing nation, Kenya.
Kenya started the tournament on a losing note. They were defeated by South Africa in their first match. They bounced back and defeated Canada in their second match. Their third match against New Zealand was embroiled in a bit of controversy. The New Zealand team had refused to play their match in Kenya citing security reasons. They had requested ICC to change the venue but ICC denied their request of the match being shifted to South Africa or Zimbabwe.
As a result, the Kenyans were given a walkover due to a forfeit by the New Zealand team. Their next match was probably one of the tournament’s biggest upsets when they defeated the 1996 champions, Sri Lanka. In their second last group match, they defeated Bangladesh, before being defeated by West Indies in their final group match. At the end of the group stage, they were placed second on the table with 16 points from their 6 matches. Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Kenya qualified, but Kenya qualified with 10 points carried forward in the Super Six Stage.
What is Points Carried Forward You might ask, PCF was a system used in the 1999 and 2003 World Cups only. In the ’99 World Cup It was pretty simple, each team played all the others in their group once. The top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Sixes, Each team carried forward the points from the games against the other qualifiers from their group, for example, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan qualified from Group B and Pak carried forward 4 points because they had defeated both Australia and New Zealand in the group stage, Australia got 0 points because they had lost to both Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage and New Zealand got 2 points because they lost to Pakistan but won against Australia and then played each of the qualifiers fro
Kenya is an associate nation but they have delivered some amazing performances through the years and I kid you not when I say this, but this team has defeated India twice in ODIs. Although their most significant achievement in the cricketing world is when they qualified for the 2003 WC.
The 2003 Cricket World Cup will be remembered for the antics of one team – Kenya. The World Cup was hosted by the African teams South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Everyone expected the South Africans to go the farthest or maybe even win it. But it was not to be as they were eliminated in the first round. It was the Kenyans who surprised everyone by reaching the semi-finals.
In a group comprising teams like South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Canada, and Bangladesh, it was almost taken for granted that the top test-playing nations would proceed to the Super Six stage. Two of them did, but the third one was a non-test-playing nation, Kenya.
Kenya started the tournament on a losing note. They were defeated by South Africa in their first match. They bounced back and defeated Canada in their second match. Their third match against New Zealand was embroiled in a bit of controversy. The New Zealand team had refused to play their match in Kenya citing security reasons. They had requested ICC to change the venue but ICC denied their request of the match being shifted to South Africa or Zimbabwe.
As a result, the Kenyans were given a walkover due to a forfeit by the New Zealand team. Their next match was probably one of the tournament’s biggest upsets when they defeated the 1996 champions, Sri Lanka. In their second last group match, they defeated Bangladesh, before being defeated by West Indies in their final group match. At the end of the group stage, they were placed second on the table with 16 points from their 6 matches. Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Kenya qualified, but Kenya qualified with 10 points carried forward in the Super Six Stage.
What is Points Carried Forward You might ask, PCF was a system used in the 1999 and 2003 World Cups only. In the ’99 World Cup It was pretty simple, each team played all the others in their group once. The top three teams from each group advanced to the Super Sixes, Each team carried forward the points from the games against the other qualifiers from their group, for example, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan qualified from Group B and Pak carried forward 4 points because they had defeated both Australia and New Zealand in the group stage, Australia got 0 points because they had lost to both Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage and New Zealand got 2 points because they lost to Pakistan but won against Australia and then played each of the qualifiers fro