Australia Vs West Indies Final

A new kind of tournament

The Prudential World Cup of 1975 was the first tournament of its kind, eight teams playing 60-over matches in coloured whites on English grounds over a fortnight in June. One-day international cricket itself was barely five years old, and nobody quite knew what a World Cup final in the format should look or feel like. What they got, at Lord's on 21 June, was a match that lasted close to eight hours, going on so long that the closing overs were played in fading evening light with the crowd spilling onto the outfield in the gaps between deliveries.

Ian Chappell won the toss for Australia and chose to field, a conventional decision against a West Indian batting line-up packed with strokeplayers. West Indies were captained by Clive Lloyd, tall, powerful and already one of the most destructive batters in the world game, and Australia brought their own array of fast bowling in Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, the pairing that had terrorised England's batters the previous winter.

Lloyd's century

West Indies lost three wickets for 50, Roy Fredericks out hit wicket for 7 and Alvin Kallicharran and Gordon Greenidge both caught cheaply, but Lloyd's innings turned the match. He came to the crease with the score uncertain and left it, caught for 102 from 85 balls, having taken the Australian attack apart with drives and pulls that the Lord's crowd had rarely seen played with such power. Rohan Kanhai, at the other end, played the perfect foil, working the ball into gaps and running hard while Lloyd cleared the boundary, and the pair added 149 for the fourth wicket before Lloyd fell. Kanhai went on to make 55 before he was bowled, and Viv Richards was out for 5, a quiet day with the bat for a batter who would go on to dominate the tournament final four years later.

Gilmour strikes back

Gary Gilmour, the Australian left-arm seamer who had bowled his side to the semi-final with a remarkable spell against England, was again the most dangerous bowler on view. He took 5 for 48 from his 12 overs, the best bowling figures on either side in the match, and it was his early inroads that kept Australia in touch through the middle of the innings even as the total climbed.

Boyce and Julien push the total on

Keith Boyce and Bernard Julien added 52 for the seventh wicket, Boyce making 34 from 37 balls before he was caught and Julien finishing unbeaten on 26, and Deryck Murray contributed 14 from just ten balls in a late stand of 24 with Julien. West Indies closed on 291 for 8 from their 60 overs, with 17 extras included in the total, Vanburn Holder unbeaten at the end alongside Julien. It was, for 1975, an imposing score, built on Lloyd's century and the lower order's refusal to let the innings stall in its closing stages.

Australia's chase and the run-outs

Australia's reply became one of the strangest run chases in the sport's history, not because of the bowling but because of the fielding at one end and the running between the wickets at the other. Rick McCosker went early, caught by Alvin Kallicharran for 7, before Ian Chappell made 62 and Alan Turner 40 in a partnership that took the total to 81. Both were run out, as was Greg Chappell for 15 soon after, and the number-ten batter Jeff Thomson later in the innings. In all, five Australian batters were run out during the chase, an extraordinary number that owed a great deal to West Indies' fielding, sharp and athletic in a way that one-day cricket had not widely seen before, with Viv Richards involved in three of the run-outs from cover point.

Doug Walters made 35 and Ross Edwards 28, and Rod Marsh and Gary Gilmour both chipped in as Australia kept the required rate within reach for long stretches of the innings without ever being fully in control of it. Keith Boyce, having made useful runs with the bat, returned to take 4 for 50 with the ball, West Indies' best figures in the chase behind only Gilmour's haul on the other side, and Clive Lloyd himself took a wicket with his medium pace; much of the rest of the innings was undone by running between the wickets rather than by the bowling.

The final wicket after dark

Australia were bowled out for 274 with the very last ball of the match, Thomson run out attempting a second, and the ground had grown so dark by then that the closing overs were played in conditions that would not be allowed today. Dennis Lillee finished unbeaten on 16 at the other end, having batted for over half an hour trying to keep the chase alive alongside first Walker and then Thomson. The match had started shortly after 11 in the morning and did not finish until close to half past eight in the evening, two full innings of 60 overs each stretching the day to its limit. West Indies won by 17 runs, and Clive Lloyd was named man of the match for his century and his captaincy. Thousands of spectators, many of them West Indian supporters who had travelled to London or lived there, streamed onto the Lord's outfield in celebration once the winning moment arrived, and it took some time for the players and umpires to make their way back to the pavilion through the crush, a scene that has since become part of the match's own legend as much as anything that happened with bat or ball.

How the final set the template

West Indies went on to win the second World Cup too, in 1979, again at Lord's, and their dominance of one-day cricket through the late 1970s and 1980s is often traced back to the confidence this first final gave a young side built around Lloyd, Richards and a battery of fast bowlers still to reach their peak. The 1975 final remains the benchmark for a tournament decider that ran long and stayed thrilling throughout; the full scorecard, over by over, is on this page. Both sides' full one-day histories are on the West Indies and Australia team pages, and in The Chase you can build either line-up and try to defend, or chase down, a total like the one Lloyd set at Lord's.

Sources

• CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and bowling figures on this page
• ESPNcricinfo: Prudential World Cup 1975, final scorecard and report
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1976: the Prudential World Cup