1987 Cricket World Cup Final


The final of the Reliance World Cup was played in Eden Gardens, Calcutta on Sunday 8 November 1987. The match was won by Australia who defeated England by 7 runs to lift their first ever World Cup trophy. This was the first Cricket World Cup final to be played outside England.

Background

The match was the fourth World Cup final and was hosted at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. It was the first World Cup final held at a venue other than Lord's, which had hosted the previous three finals in 1975, 1979 and 1983.
Australia reached their second World Cup final after defeating Pakistan by 18 runs in the first semi-finals. Their previous final appearance, in 1975, ended in defeat to the West Indies.
England reached their second final after defeating India by 35 runs in the second semi-final. Their previous final appearance, in 1979, ended in defeat to the West Indies.

Details

Australia won the toss and chose to bat. David Boon top-scored for Australia, whose batsmen scored fluently. Australia posted 253. Mike Veletta cut loose late in the innings, as Australia scored 65 runs from the last 6 overs of their innings.
In the English reply, opener Tim Robinson was out lbw first ball. Bill Athey top-scored, and England were almost on target, when captain Mike Gatting handed back the initiative with the loss of his wicket to an attempted reverse sweep off the occasional off-spin bowling of Allan Border, which ended a growing partnership of 69 runs in 13 overs between him and Athey. Allan Lamb also posted a great innings, but it was in vain as the required run-rate for England began to rise. When England failed to score the last 17 runs from the final over, the cup went to Australia.

Scorecard

Australia innings

Fall of wickets:1-75,2-151,3-166,4-168,5-241

England Bowling

England innings

Fall of Wickets:1-1,2-66,3-135,4-170,5-188,6-218,7-220,8-235

Australia innings