Best team to not win the World Cup - Australia, 1996

Australia's love affair with the World Cup dates back to the inaugural edition in 1975. Their first taste of success however came after 12 years, in the 1987 edition. The appetite was whetted, they wanted more. The expectations that came with being the defending champions and hosts were too much for them to handle in 1992. And so, in 1996, the Aussies came back to the sub-continent with an eye on the cherry atop the cake. They had the cake. Unfortunately, someone else ate it.

In retrospect, the tournament started on a rather inauspicious note for Australia. They forfeited their tournament opener against co-hosts Sri Lanka after political unrest in the island nation posed security concerns. Mark Taylor's men officially began their tournament with a resounding win over minnows Kenya courtesy a Mark Waugh hundred. Waugh junior was at it again in their next game against India in Mumbai (then Bombay), scoring a sublime 126 before having a belligerent Sachin Tendulkar stumped off a wide to help the Aussies register a 16-run win.

The close encounter at the Wankhede Stadium was followed by one against Zimbabwe that was won at a canter. With a quarter-final berth already sealed, Australia, who were still not the dominant side that saw them sweep tournaments in the early 2000s, slacked in their final group game against Richie Richardson's West Indies and were duly beaten.

It was a story of cometh the hour, cometh Australia during the knockouts. In the quarters, revenge (for their defeat to New Zealand in 1992) was exacted in the Trans-Tasman rivalry thanks to a punishing century by Mark Waugh, his third of the tournament. New Zealand, despite having posted 286, watched in despair as Steve Waugh and Stuart Law knocked off the winning runs with three overs to spare.

If the quarters was about flair and individual talent, the semis was about finding a way to win despite having an off day. Defending 207, Australia saw West Indies race to 165/2 before they decided to scrap. And scrap they did. Shane Warne enhanced his growing reputation as the world's leading spinner with a devastating four-fer and Australia sneaked into the finals with a five-run win.

Man for man, Australia fielded their strongest team yet but still paled in comparison to their final opposition, Arjuna Ranatunga's Sri Lanka. Ranatunga took an enthusiastic bunch of cricketers and got them to pull together towards a common goal. Australia, on the other hand, threw up heroes. Mark Waugh with 484 at 80.66 was second only to Sachin Tendulkar in the run-charts. Waugh junior also became the first player to score three centuries in a World Cup competition (Sourav Ganguly and Matthew Hayden joined the exclusive club in later editions). Stuart Law and Steve Waugh, who each averaged above 45, played the ideal foil to Mark's belligerence at the top of the order. Damien Fleming and Shane Warne took 24 wickets among themselves to complete a solid all-round tournament. Then, Aravinda de Silva happened.

In Lahore, captain Mark Taylor's composed 74 remained but a footnote in the face of 'Mad Max' de Silva's 3/42 and 107*. It was a case of 'so near, yet so far for Australia'. A campaign that started with a refusal to go to Sri Lanka had ended with Sri Lanka refusing to yield even an inch in the final.