The 2000 NatWest Series was a One Day International cricket tournament that took place in England between 6 and 22 July 2000. It was a tri-nation series involving England, West Indies and Zimbabwe. Ten matches were played in total, with each team playing one another thrice during the group stage, and the top two teams advancing to the finals. In the final, England defeated Zimbabwe at Lord's on 22 July 2000 by seven wickets to win the title.
Background The Zimbabwe team played in a two Test match series against England in May-June 2000, which was won by England. The West Indies was scheduled to play five tests against England in the Frank Worrell series between June and August 2000. In the midst of the test series between England West Indies, a tri-nation One Day International series involving the England, West Indies and Zimbabwe was scheduled, sponsored by the National Westminster Bank.
Venues Eight venues across England were used for the series with the final played at Lord's. City Bristol London London Canterbury Manchester Chester-le-Street Birmingham Nottingham Venue Bristol County Ground The Oval Lord's St Lawrence Ground Old Trafford Riverside Ground Edgbaston Cricket Ground Trent BridgeCapacity17,50023,50020,00015,00015,00019,00025,00015,000
Squads +Squads Nasser Hussain (c) Andy Caddick Robert Croft Mark Ealham Andrew Flintoff Paul Franks Darren Gough Graeme Hick Nick Knight Matthew Maynard Alan Mullally Vikram Solanki Alec Stewart, (wk) Graham Thorpe Marcus Trescothick Craig White Jimmy Adams (c) Sherwin Campbell Shivnarine Chanderpaul Corey Collymore Mervyn Dillon Chris Gayle Adrian Griffith Wavell Hinds Ridley Jacobs (wk) Reon King Brian Lara Nixon McLean Mahendra Nagamootoo Ricardo Powell Franklyn Rose Ramnaresh Sarwan Courtney Walsh Andy Flower (c), (wk) Heath Streak Grant Flower Alistair Campbell Gary Brent Stuart Carlisle Murray Goodwin Neil Johnson Mpumelelo Mbangwa Mluleki Nkala Henry Olonga Bryan Strang Paul Strang Dirk Viljoen Guy Whittall Craig Wishart
Fixtures Ten matches were played in total, with each team playing one another thrice during the group stage, and the top two teams advancing to the finals.
Group stage Zimbabwe topped the group stage with four wins from six matches. England finished in second place with seven points, and qualified for the finals to face Zimbabwe. TeamPlayedWonLostNo ResultPoints 6 4 2 0 8 -0.276 6 3 2 1 7 0.985 6 1 4 1 3 -0.700
Matches In the group stage, Zimbabwe won its first three matches to top the table during the early fixtures. After its initial loss to Zimbabwe and a no result against West Indies, England came back to win its next three matches to be placed second. West Indies never really took off in the series, lost all its matches with Zimbabwe, and scored a lone victory in the last dead rubber against England.
Final In the final held at Lord's on 22 July 2000, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat first. Zimbabwe lost three quick wickets within the first few overs with Darren Gough taking two. After Andy Caddick bowled Neil Johnson, Andy and Grant Flower steadied the innings with Grant top scoring with 53 runs. Zimbabwe finished with a paltry total of 169 runs in the allocated 50 overs. While England lost two quick wickets in the chase, Alec Stewart and Graham Hick combined for a partnership of 134 runs to take England closer to victory. England won the match in the 46th over with six wickets to spare.
Stewart was awarded the Man of the Match in the final and Man of the Series awards.
References
External links 2000 NatWest Series at ESPNcricinfo