C'mon Aussie, c'mon

The 1999 World Cup was won by Australia. But they wouldn't even have got to the final if it hadn't been for an amazing comeback in the semi-final against South Africa, which was engineered by Shane Warne.

The Australians, on a couple of occasions, had appeared to be out of the 1999 World Cup, but they just kept winning matches and staying in there. In fact, they had some really good wins. It wasn't a win in the semi-final - in fact it was a tie - but it was enough to get them into the final.

It was a match where they seemed to have no chance of winning. I think they had set a target of only about 213, so that looked well within the capabilities of the strong South African batting line-up. They were sailing along pretty comfortably, Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten had got them off to a good start. Everything seemed to be set for South Africa to finally break this hoodoo of things going wrong for them in world events.

But suddenly Shane Warne came on to the scene. He got rid of Kirsten, bowled him with a magnificent delivery. And I will never forget Warne after he got the wicket was pumping his fist and yelling "C'mon". He really dragged that team along with him. I think at that point Warne might have been the only Australian who thought that they had a chance of winning, and he convinced the rest of them that they had a chance.

He got four wickets in the end, four very big wickets. He got Gibbs, Kirsten, Hansie Cronje and Jacques Kallis - the top four in the order. And it was Warne who got Australia to the point where they were able to tie in that unbelievable last over and take them to the final, where they beat Pakistan very comfortably.

To me it was Warne in the semi-final who put Australia in a position to win the World Cup final in 1999.