1979 World Cup: India’s misery, West Indies’ utter dominance

In 1975, the cricketing world witnessed the first World Cup and it was yielded a major success. Four years later, the second edition was held in England again and this time, it was Canada who made their debut in the tournament. Sri Lanka was once again invited as an Associate team. For India, it was a disastrous tournament as they continued their winless run in the tournament. After losing their opening game to the West Indies by nine wickets, their fortunes hit rock bottom when they suffered a 47-run loss to Sri Lanka. After losing their last league game to New Zealand, India was dumped out in sorry fashion.

Australia, who were the finalists in the 1975 edition, crashed out in the league stages after losing to England and Pakistan. West Indies stormed through the league stages along with England while Pakistan became the first Asian nation to reach the knockout stages of the tournament. New Zealand showed their consistency by reaching the semi-final yet again but once again they fell short. In a tense semi-final against England, New Zealand fell short by nine runs while West Indies got the better of Pakistan in the other match by 43 runs. West Indies squared off against England in the final at Lord’s and it was once again a contest between two strong teams in that period.

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Viv Richards showed he was indeed the king of batting when he blasted 138 and aided by Collis King’s brutal 86, West Indies reached 286/9. In response, Mike Brearley and Geoffrey Boycott batted really slowly and the asking rate mounted. Despite Boycott’s fifty and an aggressive knock by Graham Gooch, England suffered a dramatic collapse as they lost eight wickets for 11 runs to lose by 92 runs. West Indies won their second consecutive World Cup and they showed the world they were indeed the Kings of cricket.

Most runs: Gordon Greenidge of West Indies. Runs: 253. Average: 84.33

Most wickets: Mike Hendrick of England. Wickets: 10. Average: 14.9

Venue: England

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sir Viv Richards scored a century in the final against England.
• West Indies won the World Cup for the second time.
• India crashed out in the league stage, losing all three games including one to Sri Lanka.