The dress rehearsals are over with Australia thrashing England 6-1. True, most of it was meaningless, but still there were some positives; the return of Brett Lee, the return to batting form for Michael Clarke, Shane Watson all-round act and the middle-order solidity of David Hussey.
Also in the ODIs, Australia is ranked no. 1 with 131 points, 12 points ahead of joint no.2 India and Sri Lanka.
This is not a post-mortem of a dead series, nor a preview of the 10th World Cup (WC) starting in the Indian sub-continent on the 19th. Rather it describes cliffhanging WC matches involving Australia. Today in Part I we recreate two of the most dramatic matches played in 1987; thrillers which made Australia turn the corner in international cricket.
When the Aussie manager won a thriller (v. India at Chennai, 1987)
Like now, Australian cricket was in the doldrums in mid-1980s after the simultaneous retirement of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh and loss of key players who had toured South Africa unofficially. No one expected Australia to enter the semis, let alone lift the 1987 World Cup.
This changed after their first match against India at Madras (now Chennai). Australia scored 6-268 after Geoff Marsh (110) and David Boon put on 110 runs for the opening wicket. But the alert Australian manager Alan Crompton had noticed that a hit from Dean Jones signalled as a four was actually a six.
At lunch Crompton, the umpires and captains Allan Border and Kapil Dev watched the video and two runs were added to the total.
India started her reply confidently and was 2-207 with sparkling batting from Sunil Gavaskar, Krish Srikkanth and Navjot Sidhu. But in a devastating second spell, quickie Craig McDermott took four wickets. In the final over India needed six runs for a win with the last man Maninder Singh on strike.
“Ice-man” Steve Waugh conceded two runs from his first two deliveries but bowled the bearded Maninder off the fifth and Australia won by one run. For his century, Marsh was made Man of the Match but many said tongue-in-cheek that their eagle-eyed manager Crompton was the real hero!
Oh Calcutta, it’s our World Cup (v. England, Calcutta, 1987)
This win against India was just the catalyst Border’s men needed. The little-fancied Australians not only entered the semi-final but also beat the Cup favourites Pakistan in Pakistan to make it to the final.
With adrenalin pumping through their veins, they arrived in Calcutta (now Kolkata) feeling ten feet tall. A bonus was that a majority of the 70,000 plus spectators barracked for them perhaps because they had humiliated arch rivals Pakistanis and England had beaten India.
With Boon scoring 75, Australia totalled 253 and appeared confident as no team had reached 254 to win a World Cup. England started well and at 4-188 was on target. But Mike Gatting handed back the initiative when he attempted a reverse sweep off Border and was caught behind.
Now England needed 46 with five overs and five wickets in hand. Steve Waugh bowled a well-set Allan Lamb in the 47th over. Phil DeFreitas gave England hope with 14 runs (4, 6, 4) in McDermott’s penultimate over but Waugh had him caught and conceded just two runs in the 49th over.
England required 17 runs in the final over but McDermott allowed only nine and Australia won by seven runs to lift their first World Cup.
More spine-chillers will be recalled in Part II (final installment) soon.
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