1979 Cricket World Cup
The 1979 Cricket World Cup was the second edition of the Cricket World Cup. Organised by the International Cricket Conference, it was held in England from 9 to 23 June 1979.
The tournament was once against sponsored by the Prudential Assurance Company and had eight teams participating in the tournament with the only change being Canada who qualified with Sri Lanka in the qualifier for the tournament. The format remained the same with two teams qualifying from each group with the final once again being at Lord's.
England joined first-time semi-finalists Pakistan as the qualifiers from Group A, while the West Indies finished top of Group B ahead of New Zealand. After the West Indies and England both won their semi-finals over Pakistan and New Zeland respectively, they met in the final at Lord's with the West Indies defending their title from four years erlier with a 92 run victory. West Indian batsman, Gordon Greenidge ended the tournament as the leading run scorer with 253 runs from four matches with English player Mike Hendrick ending up as the leading wicket taker with ten wickets.
Format
The eight teams at the tournament were split into two groups of four teams, with each team playing the others in their group in a single round-robin format. The top two teams from each group then advance to the semi-finals to play in a single-elimination tournament.Participants
The 1979 tournament saw the first qualifiers to a World Cup with the 1979 ICC Trophy being held throughout late May to early June at various grounds in the English midlands with the two finalists qualifying through to the tournament where they joined the six test nations who automatically qualified through to the World Cup. Sri Lanka and Canada was the teams that qualified through to the World Cup after defeating Denmark and Bermuda respectively in their semi-finals.| Team | Method of qualification | Finals appearances | Last appearance | Previous best performance | Group |
| Hosts | 2nd | 1975 | Semi-finals | A | |
| Full member | 2nd | 1975 | Group stage | B | |
| Full member | 2nd | 1975 | Runners-up | A | |
| Full member | 2nd | 1975 | Group stage | A | |
| Full member | 2nd | 1975 | Champions | B | |
| Full member | 2nd | 1975 | Semi-finals | B | |
| 1979 ICC Trophy winner | 2nd | 1975 | Group stage | B | |
| 1979 ICC Trophy runner-up | 1st | — | Debut | A |
Venues
| London | London | |
| Lord's Cricket Ground | The Oval | |
| Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 23,500 | |
| Birmingham | Manchester | |
| Edgbaston Cricket Ground | Old Trafford Cricket Ground | |
| Capacity: 21,000 | Capacity: 19,000 | |
| Nottingham | Leeds | |
| Trent Bridge | Headingley Stadium | |
| Capacity: 15,350 | Capacity: 14,000 | |
Squads
Group stage
Summary
The opening round of matches took place on 9 June with four matches being played. England took on Australia at Lord's and after the home team elected to field first, restricted the Australians to 97 for one with fine fielding and bowling. After Andrew Hilditch dragged his second ball after lunch into the stumps, the Australians would be restricted for 159 which included four run-outs. The run-chase saw Mike Brearley and Graham Gooch controlled the innings and led England to a six wicket victory.Group A
| Team | Pld | W | L | NR | RR | Pts |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3.07 | 12 | |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.60 | 8 | |
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.16 | 4 | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1.60 | 0 |
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Group B
| Team | Pld | W | L | NR | RR | Pts |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3.93 | 10 | |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.55 | 8 | |
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3.56 | 6 | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.13 | 0 |
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Knockout stage
Semi-finals
In a very close semi-final match, England prevailed. New Zealand won the toss and fielded. England began badly, falling to 38/2, before Mike Brearley and Graham Gooch resurrected the innings. Derek Randall played well in the second half of the innings, as England recovered from 98/4 to post 221. In the response, John Wright attacked well in the beginning. However, the loss of wickets bogged New Zealand down, and despite several late flourishes in the batting order, New Zealand started to drop behind. When New Zealand could not achieve the remaining 14 runs from the last over of the match, England went into the final.Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes set a first wicket partnership of 132 runs in a match dominated by batting. Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd also contributed solidly, as West Indies ran up 293 against Pakistan. Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas shared a second-wicket partnership of 166 runs in 36 overs in the response. However, none of the other Pakistani batsmen flourished, with Javed Miandad being bowled for a duck first ball, and Pakistan lost 9/74, beginning with the dismissal of Abbas. Pakistan was bowled out for 250 in 56.2 overs in the high-scoring semi-final, sending the West Indies to the final.
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Final
England won the toss and chose to field first. The West Indies got off to a bad start, falling to 99/4 with the loss of Greenidge, Haynes, Kallicharan, and captain Clive Lloyd. However, Vivian Richards and Collis King consolidated the innings. King especially ripped through the English bowling, with a strike rate of 130.3. The West Indies were already at 238/5 when the 139 run partnership ended with the loss of Collis King. Vivian Richards and the tail then took the West Indies to a very imposing total of 286.The English batsmen got off to a good start. But the openers, Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott scored very slowly. They put together a very methodical opening partnership of 129 runs in 38 overs, playing as if the match were a five-day Test. By the time both batsmen were out, the required run rate had risen too high. Graham Gooch played some hefty strokes in scoring his 32, taking England to 183/2. However, the loss of Gooch triggered the most devastating collapse in World Cup history, as England lost 8/11. They were eventually all out for 194 in 51 overs.
Vivian Richards was declared Man of the Match.