It was wonderful. The ball came off the middle from the first ball and, as sometimes happens, I suspected it was going to be my day : The West Indies were a formidable team in the 1970s and virtually established their supremacy in the first two editions of the World Cup 1975 and 1979. Those were 60-over games.
In the inaugural edition in 1975, they won all the league games. In their first ever world cup encounter, they beat Sri Lanka at Old Trafford, Manchester, by 9 wickets with 236 balls remaining.
Put into bat Sri Lanka managed to score only 86 runs losing all their wickets in 37.2 overs. Those were the days when the teams / players hardly had any clue, how to approach the limited version of the game.
West Indian speedsters like Andy Roberts, Keith Boyce, Bernard Julien, Vanburn Holder, spewed venom and restricted the opposition to a very small total which was overcome by their batsmen, Roy Fredericks (33), wicket-keeper Derek Murray (33*) and Alvin Kalicharran (19*) in just 20.4 overs
In the second encounter, West Indies took Pakistan head-on at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Electing to bat, Pakistan, backed by a well made 60 runs off 108 balls by their skipper Majid Khan and supported by half-centuries by Mushtaq Mohammad (55) and Wasim Raja (58) ended up scoring 266 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 60 overs.
West Indian speedsters, Andy Roberts (12-1-47-1), Keith Boyce (12-2-44-1), Bernard Julien (12-1-41-1) picked up a wicket each, while part-timers Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd chipped in with a wicket each.
Chasing 267 runs for a win, the Windies achieved the same with some excellent contributions from the skipper Clive Lloyd (53 runs off 58 balls), an unbeaten 61* runs (off 76 balls) from the blade of the wicket-keeper, Derek Murray and an unbeaten 24* runs (off 48 balls) by Andy Roberts, batting at No 11.
West Indies won the encounter by one wicket and 2 balls to spare.
Third and final clash in the round robin league stage saw Windies fight it out against the Aussies at Kennington Oval, London.
Put into bat, Australia lost all their wickets for 192 runs in 53.4 overs, with significant contributions coming from Ross Edwards who notched up 58 runs (off 74 balls) and an unbeaten 52* runs (off 54 balls) by the wicker-keeper, Rodney Marsh.
Andy Roberts with 3 wickets off 12 overs, Keith Boyce with 2 wickets off 11 overs and Vivian Richards 2 wickets off 6 overs were the chief wreckers.
Roy Fredericks 58 runs (105 balls) and Alvin Kalicharran 78 runs (83 balls) and their partnership of 124 runs ensured a great victory by 7 wickets to the West Indians.
This victory took them to the knockout stage and they took on New Zealand at Kennington Oval for the first Semi Final.
Electing to field, the Windies were successful in restricting the Kiwis to 158 runs in 52.2 overs, backed by a half-century from Geoff Howarth (51 runs off 93 balls).
Bernard Julien came up with another stellar performance picking up 4 wickets, giving away 27 runs in 12 overs while Vanburn Holder with 3 wickets in 8.2 overs and Andy Roberts with 2 wickets off 11 overs shared the remaining spoils.
A 125-run partnership for the second wicket between Gordon Greenidge (55 off 95 balls) and Alvin Kalicharran (72 off 92 balls) made the target look too small and achieved the same in 40.1 overs losing only 5 wickets.
Alvin Kallicharran was awarded the Player of the Match.
The title clash between West Indies and Australia played at Lord’s, saw the West Indian skipper, Clive Lloyd and Rohan Kanhai ‘come into their elements’.
Put into bat, the Windies had a shaky start losing Roy Fredericks (7), Gordon Greenidge (13) and Alvin Kalicharran (12) with just 50 runs on the board.
Thereafter Kanhai and Lloyd got together to steady the innings and went on to add 149 runs for the fourth wicket and took the team score to 199 runs when Llyod departed, caught by wicket-keeper Rodney Marsh off the bowling of Gary Gilmour.
Facing 85 deliveries, staying for 108 minutes at the crease, dispatching the ball 12 times to the fence and twice beyond, Lloyd notched up 102 runs, his maiden (and the only) ODI century.
Rohan Kanhai scored 55 runs off 105 balls with 8 fours.
A seventh-wicket partnership of 52 runs between Keith Boyce (34) and Bernard Julien (26*) enabled the Windies to put up 291 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 60 overs.
For Australia, Gary Gilmour was the most successful bower picking up 5 wickets, giving away 48 runs in his 12-over spell.
A superb bowling display by Keith Boyce (12-0-50-4) put brakes on the Australian batting line up and helped his team in restricting the opposition 17 runs short of the target.
A fine innings of 62 runs (93 balls) by the Aussie skipper, Ian Chappell and his 56-run partnership for the second-wicket alongwith Alan Turner (40 runs off 5 balls), 34-run partnership for the third-wicket alongwith Greg Chappell (15 runs off 23 balls) and 47-run fourth-wicket partnership with Doug Walters (35 off 51 balls) could not help the team’s cause of achieving the target.
Strong armed Vivian Richards effected three important run-outs, sending Alan Turner (40), Ian Chappell (62) and Greg Chappell (15) and sent them packing to the pavilion.
Winning the encounter by 17 runs West Indies were crowned the World Champions and lifted the inaugural World Cup.
For his cameo innings, Clive Lloyd was awarded the Player of the Match.
On his maiden ODI century, Lloyd had said, “It was wonderful. The ball came off the middle from the first ball and, as sometimes happens, I suspected it was going to be my day.”
Prince Philips presented the World Cup to Clive Lloyd at the Lord’s balcony on 21st June, 1975, the longest day of the year.
Wisden, cricket’s Bible had stated that, “It might not be termed First Class but the game has never provided better entertainment in one day.”
The limited version of the game had officially taken birth and was here to stay.
