Mumbai: Allan Border transformed Australia from a good team to champion material as they vanquished old foes England by seven runs in the final of the Reliance World Cup at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 8, 1987.
The Australian team turned a new leaf by performing magnificently in both forms of cricket (One-Day Internationals and Tests) and the World Cup victory, reduced to 50-overs-a-side for the first time, was yet another feather in Border’s cap. Continue reading below
England had stormed into the final with a superb win over hosts India and their batting line-up consisting of Grame Gooch, skipper Mike Gatting and Allan Lamb, along with a couple of youngsters, was considered one of the best in the world.
However, on that crucial day, when they had to chase a modest target of 253, the Englishmen failed to keep their nerves and failed miserably in a run-chase. Their dream of winning the World Cup has remained just that till today.
The Aussies, after electing to bat, got off to a good start with their in-form opening batsmen – David Boon (75 off 125 balls) and Geoff Marsh (24 off 49) - putting on 75 for the first wicket.
Despite an unbeaten 45 off 31 balls by Mike Veletta and a run-a-ball 31 by Border, the Aussies could only finish at 253-5 off their 50 overs with Eddie Hemmings (2-48) being the most successful England bowler.
Even though England lost Tim Robinson early in their bid for victory, Gooch (35 off 57 balls), Bill Athey (58 off 103), Gatting (41 off 45) and Lamb (45 off 55) brought their team to within striking distance.
But with no experienced batsman left to finish off the task, the Englishmen fell short by just seven runs as Steve Waugh (2-37) and Border (2-38) himself struck lethal blows when most needed to restrict them to 246-8 off 50 overs.
In the semi-finals against India, Gooch’s 115 off 136 balls and Gatting’s half-century propelled England to a challenging 254-6 with left-arm spinner Maninder Singh (3-54) and Kapil Dev (2-38) doing most of the damage.
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Despite a fighting 64 by young Mohammad Azharuddin and a flashy 31 up-the-order by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, the Indians were bowled out for 219 runs off 45.3 overs, falling short by 36 runs.
This was also for the first time the Indians played two wicketkeepers – Chandrakant Pandit and Kiran More -- in their playing eleven even as Hemmings (4-52) and Neil Foster (3-47) systematically dismembered the Indian batting line-up.
It was indeed a sad end to India’s bid to win the World Cup in their own backyard after winning all their league matches, except the one against the Aussies (India lost by one run), till the semi-final debacle.
Even though the hosts lost their opening encounter against eventual winners Australia by one run at Chennai, they did their reputation no harm winning all their remaining league matches, including the second leg encounter against the Aussies.
In that match, Marsh’s century and Boon’s 49 propelled the Aussies to 270-6 off their 50 overs with Manoj Prabhakar (2-47) being among wickets for the hosts. Despite half centuries by Srikkanth (70 off 83) and Navjot Sidhu (73 off 79), the Indians chocked in the end overs to be all out for 269 with a ball to spare.
However, the Indians came back strongly to avenge their defeat in the second leg at Delhi by 56 runs after the Aussies failed in their run chase to get to the target of 289-6 by the hosts.
Azharuddin, who had slammed an unbeaten half century when India batted first, turned out to be the unlikely bowling hero taking 3-19 along with Maninder (3-34) in their revenge match.
Apart from beating the Aussies, the Indians also beat the Kiwis twice – by nine wickets at Nagpur and by 16 runs at Bangalore – and Zimbabwe twice – by seven wickets at Ahmedabad and by eight wickets at Mumbai.
