14 teams competed in the group stage of the 2003 Cricket World Cup which took place between 9 February and 4 March 2003. The top ten nations with Test status participated. They were joined by 4 affiliate members, Kenya being a co-host. The other three teams had to qualify from the ICC Trophy.
Contents
Both group stages had games mainly held in South Africa. All of Zimbabwe's group games were held in Zimbabwe and two of Kenya's games were held in Kenya. 9 of the games were Day/Night matches starting at 14:30. This seemed to give the team batting first an advantage. Each group contained 7 teams with each team playing each other once. There were four points awarded for a win and two points awarded for a tie or no result. If teams were ranked even on points, net run rate decided the ranking order.
The top three teams in each group progressed to the Super Six stage of the competition.
9 February
The World Cup started with the hosts kicking off the tournament against two-time winners West Indies. Captains Shaun Pollock and Carl Hooper tossed the coin with Hooper winning and choosing to bat first. So, Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds came out to bat against the opening attack of Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini. West Indies struggled at the start of the innings with the first three overs producing three maidens. 4 runs were scored when Pollock got Wavell Hinds to produce a thin edge to Mark Boucher. Brian Lara came out to bat and had an enormous amount of luck when he edged Ntini of his first ball to Jacques Kallis. However, he dropped the ball as he went one-handed to his left. Pollock removed Gayle as well but Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul re-built steadily. Allan Donald came on and conceded the first boundary of the tournament in the 13th over. He also conceded the first six as Brian Lara produced a big drive over long-off. The pair brought up a 100 partnership but Lance Klusener got Chanderpaul to edge behind on 34. Lara got past 50 and was marching onto a hundred as he and Hooper were also starting to establish a solid partnership. Lara brought up his hundred with a dab to third man. Carl Hooper was caught on the boundary for 40 and Lara was dismissed for 116 slicing a big shot, Makhaya Ntini claiming both wickets. Ricardo Powell and Ramnaresh Sarwan came out to bat and took an aggressive approach. They brought up a 50 partnership off 21 balls as the innings ended on 278-5. In reply, South Africa came out to bat and they had to chase 279 of 49 overs due to a slow over rate in the West Indies innings. Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten got them off to a good start. They raced to 46 within 9 overs before Mervyn Dillon removed Gibbs who edge behind to Ridley Jacobs. Gary Kirsten batted nicely to register a half century but he saw partners Boeta Dippenaar, Jacques Kallis and Jonty Rhodes get dismissed, Carl Hooper being the main wicket taker. Dillon came back on to then remove Gary Kirsten for 69. Captain Shaun Pollock was dismissed shortly afterwards to leave South Africa 160-6. Mark Boucher and 1999 World Cup player of the tournament Lance Klusener came together in a disappointing position. Both played aggressively especially against occasional spinners Chris Gayle and Carl Hooper. Boucher made a run-a-ball 49 before he was clean bowled by Gayle. Lance Klusener got past 50 and the game went to the final over. Vasbert Drakes bowled it and there was 8 needed of 4 balls. After a lengthy plan, Carl Hooper (the captain) was sent to the boundary by Drakes. The plan worked as a full toss was hammered to Hooper. After a dot ball to Makhaya Ntini, the next ball 8 was needed of 2 balls. Drakes bowled a full wide ball which Ntini smashed in the air to Ramnaresh Sarwan on the point boundary. Despite, Nicky Boje hitting a boundary of the final ball, West Indies had beaten South Africa by 3 runs. A poor start for the hosts who needed to bounce back from this. As for West Indies, they would take confidence from this into the rest of their group games and they would be confident of qualifying from the group now.
10 February
Namibia's first ever ODI was against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe. There were many critics wondering whether Zimbabwe should host a World Cup match but the ICC were sticking with them. In sunshine, Craig Wishart and Mark Vermeulen came out to bat after Namibian captain Deon Kotze elected to field. This seemed to be a poor decision after Zimbabwe and in particular Craig Wishart raced away to a good start. Wishart got Zimbabwe off to a great start when he hit three boundaries in the second over of the innings. Zimbabwe seemed to be unstoppable until over number twenty one when the first wicket fell. Vermeulen was out (c & b Louw) on 39. Zimbabwe was able to add another 60 runs to the score before the second and final wicket of the first innings fell. The innings came to an end with Zimbabwe leaving Namibia a grand total of 340 runs to chase. CB Wishart top scored with a total of 172 not out. A heavy shower of rain interrupted the game for a few hours. When the game finally resumed, Namibia was given a reduced total of 191 runs to make in 25.1 overs, on the Duckworth-Lewis method. Namibia had a slow shaky start, losing a wicket in the first over. As the second innings proceeded, things kept looking worse for Namibia as wickets kept falling and not enough runs were being added to the total. Eventually the number of overs ran out and Namibia was only able to make 104 runs. Zimbabwe won by 86 runs.
Things seemed to have started pretty well for New Zealand when captain S Flemming won the toss and sent Sri Lanka in to bat first. Sri Lanka’s opening batsmen were going strong and kept a steady run rate until the fifth over when they conceded their first wicket. MS Atapattu was caught off the bowling of S Bond. The next batsman in for Sri Lanka was Tillakaratne. The rest of the over continued with no runs. Things continued to move slowly until Jayasuriya hit 2 consecutive boundaries in the ninth over. The partnership continued going strong, with Jayasuriya dominating. In the thirty second over Jayasuriya hit a four to reach his century. In over number thirty five, a little luck came New Zealand’s way when Astle got the wicket of Jayasuriya and broke the second wicket partnership. Shortly after, another wicket fell. After this, Sri Lanka was unable to build another strong partnership and the fall of wickets was more regular. The final score at the end of the innings was 272/7. The second innings didn’t start very well for New Zealand, losing their opening batsman, N Astle, in the first over and captain S Flemming in the second. The innings had barely started and New Zealand were already 3/2 and heading for trouble. Things continued moving slowly and soon enough the third wicket was down. The first real form of excitement came for New Zealand supporters when Styris and Cairns start hitting a few boundaries. Things began looking a little hopeful for New Zealand now. New Zealand proceeded along slowly, adding to their total. A couple more wickets fell not long after the thirty fifth over started. Styris, desperate to save the innings and turn the match around, tried his best to score as many runs as possible, hitting boundaries every few overs. He was able to obtain his well-earned century in over number forty. Styris however, was unable to hold on to a steady partner as all his fellow team members came on the field and were sent back to the pavilion one by one. With just five overs left, New Zealand had just fifty six more runs to make and one wicket left. Styris hit a massive six and things were heading in the right direction until unfortunately two balls later he was caught off the bowling of Arnold and it was all over for New Zealand. Sri Lanka won by 47 runs and Jayasuriya was named man of the match.