Pick the Kit: Lightning Bolts v World Cup '99

And then there were two! The final of our Pick the Kit fan vote pits the Lightning Bolts strip from the early 90s against the triumphant 1999 World Cup outfit in the deciding head-to-head showdown.

Cricket Australia, with the support of kit-maker Asics and sponsor Alinta Energy, have thrown open the choice for the design of 2019-20 men's one-day uniform to Australia's fans.

The extended voting period for this final is now open and will conclude at 4pm AEDT February 27. Votes will be collated across the website, CA Live app and social media platforms.

Read on for a stroll down memory lane for each kit before voting.

The fan vote will be run in a head-to-head format until there's a final winner from the shortlist of eight uniforms worn by some of the greats of Australian cricket in the golden age between 1980 and 2001.

The 1992-94 Lightning Bolts

Has there ever been a more electrifying uniform in cricket? Pardon the pun, but this really was high voltage stuff.

Seven thin jagged bolts of white lightning streak down the front and back of the shirt, across the shoulders, with shading of red and a thicker green giving it a kind of three-dimensional effect. An angled font in block letters – with larger As at either end – emblazon the team name across the sternum.

With the early 90s bringing us the baseball-inspired kit and colourful 1992 World Cup strip featured elsewhere in this Pick the Kit competition, the emergence of the lightning bolts brought with it an injection of talent.

There are some famous names to have played their first ODIs on Australian soil in this kit, including Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath and a young man named Shane Keith Warne.

This kit was only worn for home matches across the 1992-93 and 1993-94 summers, with an ODI series in England in May 1993 played in white clothes.

Australia won 12 of their 21 ODIs overall in the lightning bolts; they lost to the West Indies in the final of the 1992-93 World Series that also featured Pakistan, but inspired by Warne and a run glut from Mark Waugh, they triumphed over South Africa in the 1993-94 summer that also featured New Zealand.

Having made his ODI debut earlier that year, Warne dominated that 1993-94 campaign, taking 22 wickets in 10 matches.

The 1999 World Cup

This 20th anniversary of Australia's 1999 World Cup win and fond memories of the tournament make this kit an early favourite for a 2019 revival in our Pick the Kit challenge.

On a classic Australian Gold palette, the front features the Southern Cross in green and zooming in from the lower left. Green collar and cuffs with golden stars complete the top, while the left leg also bears the Southern Cross over a right-handed batter's thigh guard.

Steve Waugh wore this kit when he lifted Australia's second World Cup trophy at Lord's – something Aaron Finch will be aiming to repeat this year – but that is far from the most memorable moment that occurred in this outfit. Indeed, it was the back-to-back games against tournament favourites South Africa that are most famous in Australian eyes.

Herschelle Gibbs' dropped catch and Steve Waugh's subsequent century, Shane Warne's match-turning spell of leg-spin bowling and, of course, Allan Donald's run out are the stuff of cricket folklore.

But Australia started life in this uniform in uncertain fashion. They won their first up match against Scotland but then lost to New Zealand and Pakistan, leaving them on the cusp of an inglorious early exit. But Waugh boldly proclaimed Australia could still lift the Cup – they just needed to win their next seven matches on the trot.

Bangladesh, the West Indies, India and Zimbabwe were all swept aside in increasingly assured performances before Australia met the Proteas in the final match of the Super Six stage at Headingley.

Gibbs dropped Waugh – and the World Cup, so the tale goes – and Australia's captain went on to post an unbeaten 120 in one of his finest ever ODI knocks to set up the rematch four days later.

It all looked to be going pear-shaped for the Aussies in their semi-final until Warne turned the match. In a thriller, Lance Klusener looked to have the Proteas home until Donald's brain explosion.

After that drama, Warne's four wickets to skittle Pakistan for 132 and Adam Gilchrist's quick-fire fifty in the final were almost anti-climactic, but Australia still celebrated long and hard with what would prove to be the first of three successive World Cup titles.