2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy

The 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy was a One Day International cricket tournament held in Kenya (which helped to increase the popularity of cricket in Kenya). New Zealand were crowned champions and cashed the winner's cheque of US$250,000. It was their first win in a major ICC tournament. Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Marlon Samuels made their ODI debuts during the competition.

All the test playing nations participated in the tournament along with the leading Associates Bangladesh and hosts Kenya. As there were 11 teams taking part, three would miss out on a spot in the quarter-finals. Therefore, a playoff stage took place between six of the lowest ranked teams.

Knockout stage
The knockout stage of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy, following the pre-quarter-finals, was held from 7 to 15 October 2000. The top 5 teams ranked according to 1999 Cricket World Cup seedings qualify for the knockout stage automatically. The remaining three teams qualify from the pre-quarter-finals, which was held from 3 to 5 October, between 6 of the lowest ranked teams according to 1999 Cricket World Cup seedings.

Of the eight teams entering the stage, the team which was ranked 1st according to 1999 Cricket World Cup seedings play the winner of pre-quarter-final 1 while the team which was ranked 2nd according to 1999 Cricket World Cup seedings play the winner of pre-quarter-final 2 and so on, in the format R1 v PQF 1, R2 v PQF 2, R3 v PQF 3 and R4 v R5.

Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe qualify for the knockout stage automatically, while India, Sri Lanka and England qualify from the pre-quarter-finals by beating Kenya, West Indies and Bangladesh respectively.

India, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa qualified for the semi-finals by beating Australia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and England respectively. In the semi-finals, New Zealand beat Pakistan and India beat South Africa to qualify for the Finals.

Final
The final of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy took place on 15 October 2000 at the Gymkhana Club Ground in Nairobi, Kenya. It was played between India and New Zealand. New Zealand won the final by four wickets to win their first ICC KnockOut Trophy, their first win at an ICC event.

Details
New Zealand won the toss and elected to field. Indian openers gave a superb start to their team, and put a brilliant partnership of 141 and scoring the runs at the run rate of over 5 runs per over, but then, their middle could not take any advantage of the start given by their openers and finished the innings scoring 264 runs and losing 6 wickets in their allotted 50 overs. Sourav Ganguly's golden run in the tournament continued as he yet again scored a brilliant century scoring 117 runs from 130 balls. New Zealand innings yet again did not start well as they lost their 2 wickets inside 6 overs for the score of 37, and later reduced to 132/5 but then, Chris Cairns and Chris Harris put a brilliant partnership of 122 runs which help them to win their first major ICC event and also their first ICC KnockOut Trophy title.