THE latest in our series of Cricket World Cup memories in Taunton takes us back to 1999, when the county town hosted two matches.

Zimbabwe beat Kenya by five wickets in the first of those before two Indian legends put on a memorable show on May 26.

The match was much-anticipated - the 6,500 tickets were sold out by around Christmas - and supporters of both counties flocked to the County Ground to see the talented Indian side take on the then reigning champions.

There was a carnival atmosphere but only one set of supporters left happy, and they were wearing India shirts.

Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid made 183 and 145, respectively, as part of a second-wicket stand of 318 - a new World Cup record partnership for any wicket, which stood until 2015.

The County Gazette’s Phil Hill wrote: “Ganguly embarked on a bout of thuggery as he dispatched balls over the new pavilion, into St James’ churchyard and over the Ian Botham Stand into the River Tone.”

Ganguly twice deposited Sri Lankan star Muttiah Muralitharan into the river and struck 17 fours and seven sixes over the course of his mammoth knock.

Unsurprisingly, India’s 373-6 proved too much for Sri Lanka to overcome and, despite Aravinda de Silva’s 56, they fell 157 runs short.

Correction: This article originally stated that a young Jos Buttler was in the crowd for this match, and had his pen 'stolen' by de Silva after he moved fielding position having been asked for an autograph. This incident actually occurred a couple of years previously, when Somerset were playing Kent in a County Championship match. We apologise for this error, which we are happy to clarify.