Magic moments (10 May 1999)

10 May 1999

Magic moments

Simon Hughes

The first World Cup final was a white-knuckle ride. After a handful of overs, Roy Fredericks hooked Dennis Lillee (below) for six, but tripped over his stumps and left to sympathetic applause. Rohan Kanhai contributed fifty, while Clive Lloyd detonated the bowling. His 82-ball century was a majestic innings of butchered cover drives, flicked leg glances and levered midwicket sixes. John Arlott described one pick-up shot as "like knocking the top off a thistle-head with a walking stick". Australia stuck manfully to the task of chasing 291 with Ian Chappell at his belligerent best. They fell foul of some brilliant West Indian fielding, with five run-outs, three by Viv Richards. Thomson and Lillee, the last pair, had to make 58 to win and miraculously managed 41 before the final run-out.

West Indies v England Lord's 1979 West Indies won by 92 runs

After his supporting role in 1975, Viv Richards took centre-stage this time. His unbeaten 138 was an innings of audacious brilliance. It began cautiously as Chris Old and Mike Hendrick made the ball dart about. Even Geoff Boycott's gentle in-dippers were treated with respect. Richards began to threaten, but wickets fell at the other end. Emerging at 99 for four, Collis King transformed the match. He lashed Botham, larrupped Larkins. Boycott's gentle in-dippers were savaged. He was playing baseball shots. He scored 86 off 55 balls. It was carnage. Inspired, Richards tore past 100, and waltzed outside off stump to help Hendrick's last ball, a straight, low, full toss, for six over square leg. It was the shot of the century. England's reply was tame. Brearley and Boycott took up almost 40 overs making 129, leaving Randall, Gooch, Gower, Botham and Larkins with an impossible task. Joel Garner bowled Gooch, Gower and Larkins in the same over and England were sunk.

India v Zimbabwe Tunbridge Wells 1983 India won by 31 runs

India, who went on to win the tournament, were rescued by a quite extraordinary innings from their captain, Kapil Dev. Their opening pair - Gavaskar and Srikkanth - were dismissed without scoring and Dev found himself walking out at 17 for five. He proceeded to blitz an unbeaten 175. He hit six sixes, and, as the match was played at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where the scoreboard actually lies on the boundary with Sussex, he literally hit several deliveries over the border into the next county.

It was then the highest individual score in the World Cup. The final played on a sluggish Lord's pitch - to West Indies' distaste - was largely forgettable. Notably the performance of Mohinder Amarnath, who won man of the match for scoring 26 and taking three late wickets.

England v Australia Calcutta 1987 Australia won by 7 runs

Mike Gatting's reverse sweep, the impressive shot he had more or less pioneered and perfected, let him down at the crucial moment. Having, with Gooch, countered the Indian spinners superbly in the semi-final, Gatting (below) had perhaps become a touch over-confident here. With England well placed at 135 for two (31 overs), he tried to reverse sweep the first ball from rival captain Allan Border of all people, and it ballooned up off his glove and shoulder for a simple catch behind the wicket. Allan Lamb and Phillip DeFreitas tried desperately to sustain the batting momentum, but 17 off the last over, bowled by Craig McDermott, was too much for them. As Gatting's fateful confrontation with umpire Shakoor Rana came only three weeks later, it just wasn't his month. Australia's winning margin was the narrowest of the finals so far.

New Zealand v Pakistan Auckland 1992 Pakistan won by 4 wickets

New Zealand, with their innocuous trundlers and funny field settings, had set an innovative tone throughout the competition. They consistently opened the bowling with Dipak Patel, a spinner. This maximising of limited resources got them to within a whisker of the final. Defending their Martin Crowedominated score, they frustrated the Pakistani batsmen - notably Imran Khan (right) who took an age making 44 - and eventually they needed 123 at more than eight an over. Then the young, puppy-fatted Inzamam-ul-Haq came in and went berserk, clubbing the ball to all parts of the oddly-shaped Eden Park ground. Javed Miandad kept him shrewd company, and with Inzamam's devastating 60 off 37 balls, they won with an over to spare. Denied that, Pakistan wouldn't have won the trophy.

Kenya v West Indies Pune 1996 Kenya won by 73 runs

Definitely the lowest point in West Indies cricket history and perhaps the greatest upset of all time. Kenya's much-vaunted batsmen never got on top of the efficient West Indies fast bowling though their total was inflated to a barely adequate 166 by 27 wides and no-balls. In a repeat of their incompetence against the Indian floaters in the 1983 final, the West indies capitulated to Rajab Ali, a portly in-swing bowler of negligible pace and the amiable off-spin of Maurice Odumbe. In the end it was embarrassingly one-sided as the West Indies were bowled out for 93. Richie Richardson, their captain, reflected miserably: "I've never felt this bad in all my life." It left West Indies having to win their last group match against Australia to qualify for the knockout stages. That they did should have been a clue that Australia were there for Sri Lanka's taking in the final.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)