Australia Vs England Final

Two sides without a title

The 1987 World Cup was the first held outside England, split between India and Pakistan, and it was also the first played over 50 overs a side rather than the 60 that had been standard in the previous three tournaments. Neither finalist, Allan Border's Australia nor Mike Gatting's England, had ever won the tournament, and neither had been considered among the favourites when the competition began. Border won the toss at a packed Eden Gardens in Kolkata, in front of a crowd said to number close to 100,000, and chose to bat first on a pitch expected to take some turn as the match progressed.

Boon and Jones build a total

David Boon and Geoff Marsh put on 75 for the first wicket, and after Marsh was bowled, Boon and Dean Jones added 76 for the second. Boon went on to make 75 from 125 balls, a watchful innings built on nudging singles and the occasional cut, before he was caught, and Jones made 33 in a quicker cameo. Allan Border, promoted to number five, made 31 before he was run out, but by then Australia were well placed on 241 for 5 with plenty of overs left and wickets in hand to press on further.

Veletta finishes it off

Mike Veletta, still early in his international career and playing what was effectively a specialist finisher's role before that term was in wide use in the sport, played the innings that turned a good total into a difficult one. He made an unbeaten 45 from just 31 balls, striking the ball cleanly through the last five overs while England's bowlers searched for yorkers on a slow outfield, adding 73 with Border for the fifth wicket and 12 more with Steve Waugh at the very end. Australia finished on 253 for 5 from their 50 overs, a total that looked entirely competitive after Veletta's burst had added nearly fifty runs in the last few overs alone. Eddie Hemmings took two wickets, and Neil Foster and Graham Gooch, the latter bowling his occasional off spin, took one apiece.

Gooch and Athey keep pace

England lost Tim Robinson for a duck in the first over, a nervy start to a chase that needed careful building from there. Graham Gooch and Bill Athey rebuilt with a stand of 65 for the second wicket, working the strike over and giving the total the platform it needed. Gooch made 35 before he was lbw, and Mike Gatting joined Athey to add 69 for the third wicket, keeping England roughly in touch with the rate they needed and looking, for a period, like the pair who could finish the chase off between them without too much drama.

The reverse sweep

With the score on 135 and Gatting well set on 41, he attempted a reverse sweep off Allan Border's occasional spin, a premeditated shot he had used successfully earlier in the tournament, top-edged it onto his body and was caught by the wicketkeeper. It remains one of the most debated dismissals in a World Cup final, a calculated risk that did not come off at the moment England could least afford it, and it is still cited today as a cautionary example whenever a batter attempts something unorthodox in a pressure run chase. Bill Athey went on to make 58 before he was run out, and Allan Lamb made 45, but with the required rate climbing steadily after Gatting's dismissal, England could not quite close the gap.

Seven runs short

John Emburey was run out for 10 and Phil DeFreitas caught for 17 in the closing overs, and England ran out of their fifty overs on 246 for 8, with two wickets still standing at the end. Australia won by 7 runs, the difference between the two totals and one of the narrowest margins in a World Cup final. Craig McDermott, Steve Waugh, Simon O'Donnell and Allan Border had shared the wickets tightly across the innings, none of Australia's bowlers conceding much more than five runs an over, and it was that collective discipline in the field, as much as any single spell from any one of them, that closed the match out and denied England the boundaries they needed to keep pace with the target. Neil Foster and Gladstone Small added an unbeaten 11 for the last wicket in the closing overs, hitting out and briefly threatening to complete an unlikely finish for England, but the equation had grown too steep by the time the two of them came together at the crease.

Australia's first title

David Boon was named Man of the Match for the innings that had underpinned Australia's total. It was Australia's first World Cup win, the start of a period in which they would go on to dominate the tournament through the 1990s and 2000s, eventually winning it five more times. Allan Border's side had arrived in the subcontinent under some pressure after a difficult run of results in the preceding year, and the final at Eden Gardens is often cited as the moment that turned Australian cricket's fortunes around in the lead-up to their period of dominance in the 1990s. Mike Gatting's England, by contrast, would have to wait far longer for their first World Cup title, coming close again in the 1992 final without getting over the line on that occasion, and eventually winning it on home soil in 2019, when the final against New Zealand at Lord's finished tied after both the match and the super over. The full scorecard from Eden Gardens, with every partnership and fall of wicket, is on this page. See how the two sides were built on the Australia and England team pages, and in The Chase you can bowl first for Australia and try to defend 253 against an England top order built around Gooch, Athey and Gatting.

Sources

• CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and partnerships on this page
• ESPNcricinfo: 1987 Reliance World Cup final, Eden Gardens, scorecard and report
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1988: the Reliance World Cup