| Event | 1975 ICC Cricket World Cup | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| West Indies won by 17 runs | |||||||||
| Date | 21 June 1975 | ||||||||
| Venue | Lord's Cricket Ground,London | ||||||||
| Player of the match | Clive Lloyd (WI) | ||||||||
| Umpires | Dickie Bird (Eng) andTom Spencer (Eng) | ||||||||
| Attendance | 26,765 | ||||||||
← None 1979 → | |||||||||
The1975 Cricket World Cup Final was aOne Day Internationalcricket match played atLord's,London, on 21 June 1975 to determine the winner of the1975 Cricket World Cup. It was the second time that theWest Indies andAustralia had met in the tournament, after playing against each other in the group stage. The West Indies won the match by 17runs to claim their first title.
West Indies qualified for the knockouts with a first-place finish inGroup B. The team won all three of their matches againstAustralia,Pakistan andSri Lanka. Then in the semi-final againstNew Zealand, the opposition opened brilliantly, but whenGlenn Turner fell, the wickets tumbled theWest Indies scored the required 158 to reach the final.
Australia made it through to the knockouts in second place with their only loss being against theWest Indies. But they did defeatPakistan andSri Lanka to take on England in the semi-final.Gary Gilmour took six wickets in theEnglish innings to help them through to the final.
The first final was played on 21 June (Midsummer of that year), a sunny day, in front of a capacity crowd of 26,765.[1] Australia won the toss and invited the West Indies to bat, hoping to make use of ideal bowling conditions.[2] The first moment of drama came when openerRoy Fredericks was dismissedhit wicket; he hooked a bouncer fromDennis Lillee for six, but in his follow-through lost his balance and knocked the bails off the stumps. Australia were on top at 50/3 when West Indian captainClive Lloyd came to the crease in partnership with veteranRohan Kanhai. The pair swung the match in the West Indies' favour by putting on 149 for the fourth wicket. Kanhai played the anchor role – not scoring for 11 overs – while Lloyd took on the Australian bowling attack, surviving a dropped catch on 26 to score a century off 82 balls with 12 fours and two sixes,[1] being dismissed shortly afterwards for 102. Kanhai, in what would be his farewell from international cricket, scored an invaluable 55. Solid contributions fromKeith Boyce andBernard Julien helped the West Indies close their innings at 291/8. Burly left-arm seamerGary Gilmour was the pick of the Australian bowlers with 5/48, backing up his strong semi-final performance.
The Australian run chase began steadily: at the 20-over mark, they were 80/1 withAlan Turner and captainIan Chappell taking advantage of an easy pitch and fast outfield.[2] ThenViv Richards, who had failed with the bat, left his mark on the match with the next three run-outs. First he swooped in and dismissed Turner with a direct hit from close range, thenGreg Chappell was also out with a direct hit after a slight misfield.Doug Walters came in and helped his captain steady the ship. Australia were at 162/3 with 21 overs remaining when Chappell, facing his opposing captain, pushed a ball to the left of mid-wicket and started off for a run. He hesitated initially when he saw Richards approaching but started off again after Richards fumbled the ball, only to be caught short of the crease by Richards' lightning recovery and return to Lloyd at the bowler's end.[3] In each situation, the batsmen probably would have made the run had they not hesitated.[2] When Lillee joinedJeff Thomson as last man in, Australia required 59 runs to win off seven overs. The duo kept the game alive, putting on an unlikely last-wicket stand. With three overs remaining Lillee hit a no-ball to Fredericks at extra cover offVanburn Holder and the crowd rushed on to the field oblivious to the umpire's call. Amid the chaos, Fredericks attempted a run-out but missed and the ball disappeared into the crowd. Lillee and Thomson kept running between the wickets until the crowd was dispersed. When play was resumed, the umpires decided to give Australia two runs. After protest from Thomson, they awarded three runs.[4]
The match finally ended three balls later after Thomson had run a leg bye and Lillee scored a single. The final wicket fell with Thomson swinging wildly and missing. Having not realised the wicket-keeper had held the ball Thomson set off for a run, attempted to return after recognising his mistake but not before Murray knocked the bails off with a well-aimed underarm throw with his gloves on for a run-out. The game ended at 8:43 pm after nearly 10 hours play. Another pitch invasion ensued as the players and umpires ran for safety, with Thomson having his cricket pads stolen, Boyce losing his shoes and umpire Bird having his hat taken. Bird later said that he came across the stolen hat being worn by a bus conductor in London a year after the event. When he asked about it, he was told by the conductor, who did not recognise Bird, that he'd "won the race" by sprinting onto the field at the final to take it.[5]
21 June 1975 Scorecard |
v | ||
West Indies won by 17 runs Lord's,London.England Attendance : 26,765 Umpires:Dickie Bird (Eng) andTom Spencer (Eng) Player of the match:Clive Lloyd (WI) |
 West Indies batting[6] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Status | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | Strike rate | |
| Roy Fredericks | hit wicket b Lillee | 7 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 53.84 | |
| Gordon Greenidge | c †Marsh b Thomson | 13 | 61 | 1 | 0 | 21.31 | |
| Alvin Kallicharran | c †Marsh b Gilmour | 12 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 66.66 | |
| Rohan Kanhai | b Gilmour | 55 | 105 | 8 | 0 | 52.38 | |
| Clive Lloyd* | c †Marsh b Gilmour | 102 | 85 | 12 | 2 | 120.00 | |
| Viv Richards | b Gilmour | 5 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 45.45 | |
| Keith Boyce | c GS Chappell b Thomson | 34 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 91.89 | |
| Bernard Julien | not out | 26 | 37 | 1 | 0 | 50.27 | |
| Deryck Murray† | c & b Gilmour | 14 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 140.00 | |
| Vanburn Holder | not out | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 300.00 | |
| Andy Roberts | did not bat | ||||||
| Extras | (lb 6, nb 11) | 17 | |||||
| Total | (8 wickets; 60 overs) | 291 | |||||
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Fredericks), 2-27 (Kallicharran), 3-50 (Greenidge), 4-199 (Lloyd), 5-206 (Kanhai), 6-209 (Richards), 7-261 (Boyce), 8-285 (Murray)
 Australia bowling[7] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Econ | Wides | NBs |
| Dennis Lillee | 12 | 1 | 55 | 1 | 4.58 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary Gilmour | 12 | 2 | 48 | 5 | 4.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeff Thomson | 12 | 1 | 44 | 2 | 3.66 | 0 | 0 |
| Max Walker | 12 | 1 | 71 | 0 | 5.91 | 0 | 0 |
| Greg Chappell | 7 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 4.71 | 0 | 0 |
| Doug Walters | 5 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 4.60 | 0 | 0 |
| Australia batting[6] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Status | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | Strike rate | |
| Alan Turner | run out (Richards) | 40 | 54 | 4 | 0 | 74.07 | |
| Rick McCosker | c Kallicharran b Boyce | 7 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 29.16 | |
| Ian Chappell* | run out (Richards/Lloyd) | 62 | 93 | 6 | 0 | 66.66 | |
| Greg Chappell | run out (Richards) | 15 | 23 | 2 | 0 | 65.21 | |
| Doug Walters | b Lloyd | 35 | 51 | 5 | 0 | 68.62 | |
| Rod Marsh† | b Boyce | 11 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 45.83 | |
| Ross Edwards | b Boyce | 28 | 37 | 2 | 0 | 75.67 | |
| Gary Gilmour | c Kanhai b Boyce | 14 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 127.27 | |
| Max Walker | run out (Holder) | 7 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 77.77 | |
| Jeff Thomson | run out (†Murray) | 21 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 100.00 | |
| Dennis Lillee | not out | 16 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 84.21 | |
| Extras | (b 2, lb 9, nb 7) | 18 | |||||
| Total | (10 wickets; 58.4 overs) | 274 | |||||
Fall of wickets: 1-25 (McCosker), 2-81 (Turner), 3-115 (GS Chappell), 4-162 (IM Chappell), 5-170 (Walters), 6-195 (Marsh), 7-221 (Gilmour), 8-231 (Edwards), 9-233 (Walker), 10-274 (Thomson)
| West Indies bowling[8] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Econ | Wides | NBs |
| Bernard Julien | 12 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 4.83 | 0 | 0 |
| Andy Roberts | 11 | 1 | 45 | 0 | 4.09 | 0 | 0 |
| Keith Boyce | 12 | 0 | 50 | 4 | 4.16 | 0 | 0 |
| Vanburn Holder | 11.4 | 1 | 65 | 0 | 5.57 | 0 | 0 |
| Clive Lloyd | 12 | 1 | 38 | 1 | 3.16 | 0 | 0 |
