The Cricket World is nothing less than a festival for cricket fans all around the globe. Teams participate, players play for pride, and give their best to attain the “World Champion” title. The 2023 edition of the tournament is just 15 days away from inauguration. The Championship, which is played every four years, is organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). 

In continuation to the ‘Countdown to World Cup’ series today we will talk about the Second Cricket World Cup, the second edition of the Cricket World Cup (known as the Prudential Cup’79) was played in the year 1979 and hosted by the same nation as the previous one, England. The Event hosted by the ICC commenced on 9 June 1979, while the final was played on 23 June 1979.   The tournament was funded by the Prudential Assurance Company, while eight nations took part in the event namely England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Canada. 

Format

The tournament was to be played in a group format, in which eight teams played in two groups of four. The two group toppers in each group advanced to the Semi-finals of the tournament. The winners of the Semis met in the Finals. The format of the cup was the same as in 1975, a 120-over game, each team batting for 60 overs. As the name suggests ‘One Day International’, every match was done and dusted in daylight. 

England and Pakistan qualified from the first group, and the defending champions, West Indies along with New Zealand advanced to the Semi-finals from the second group.

Semi-Finals

In a very close encounter, New Zealand was fielding after winning the toss. Mike Brearley and Graham Gooch saved England’s innings after they had collapsed to 38/2 after a poor start (53 from 115 balls, 3 fours; 71 from 84 balls, 1 four; 3 sixes). As England came back from 98/4 to score 221 (8 wickets, 60 overs) in the second half of the innings, Derek Randall (42 from 50 balls, 1 four, 1 six) performed superbly. In response, John Wright (69 from 137 balls) initially attacked effectively. New Zealand was weighed down by the loss of wickets, and despite a few late flourishes in the batting order, New Zealand started to fall behind. When New Zealand failed to score the final 14 runs needed in the game’s final over, England went into the final.

In a game where batting predominated, Gordon Greenidge (73 from 107 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) and Desmond Haynes (65 from 115 balls, 4 fours) had a first-wicket partnership of 132 runs. In addition to Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd, West Indies amassed 293 runs (6 wickets, 60 overs) against Pakistan. In response, Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas shared a second-wicket partnership of 166 runs in 36 overs (81 from 124 balls, 7 fours). Pakistan lost 9/74 after losing Abbas, none of the other Pakistani batsmen performed well, and Javed Miandad was bowled for a duck on the first delivery. In the high-scoring quarterfinal, Pakistan was bowled out for 250 (all out, 56.2 overs), and West Indies marched to the finals.

Final

The Final was played on 23 June 1979 at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s. The West Indies batting lineup featuring Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, was already the favorites to win the Final. The Hosts won the toss and elected to field. After a shaky start, Lloyd played a captain’s knock to set England a target of 287. Phil Edmonds was the pick of the bowlers from England.

English batsmen had a good test-match start, scoring 129 runs in 38 overs. After the opening partnership broke, Graham Gooch started to attack the West Indies bowlers. He was soon countered by Joel Garner. The English Team soon suffered one of the worst batting collapses losing eight wickets for 11 runs, all thanks to Garner’s fiery five-wicket haul. England got bowled out for 194. This was the story of West Indies defending the World Cup title. 

Statistics

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