WC87 Group A: Australia v India, 9 October 1987

CricInfo
9 October 1987


Marsh and Boon gave Australia a splendid start as they had been doing over the past two years against India. He became Australia's 3rd centurion in WC after Allan Turner and Greg Chappell. His 50 came off 74 balls and his 100 off 132, including 1 six and 6 fours. The rest of the Aussie batsmen merely chipped in and the Aussies reached a healthy total of 268. During Jones' innings, he had hit what was declared a four, but then Umpire Bird then changed it to 6. The fellows incharge of the scoreboard did not see this change in signal, and so the commentators always seemed to be 2 runs ahead of the scoreboard. However, during lunch, Kapil Dev agreed to add 2 runs to the Aussie scorcard. By the end of the day's play, it had become the source of an endless debate.

Srikkanth and Gavaskar gave India a rollicking start. Sidhu then chipped in to transform himself from the ``strokeless wonder'' of 1982/83 to the ``wonderful stroke-player'' of today. India was breezing along at 2/207 with 71 required in 95 balls or 15.5 overs. Suddenly the game was changed around!

McDermott, who had been smashed by the Indian batsmen the previous season, started by removing Sidhu as he went for his sixth six. Vengsarkar, Azhar and Shastri also fell to him and with O'Donnell dismissing the skipper India had crumbled to 7/256. McDermott and Reid had finished their quota of overs and it was now upto Waugh and O'Donnell to win the match for Australia. Binny and Prabhakar were run out, and with the last over to go, India needed 8 to win with More and Prabhakar at the crease. In all the confusion, Prabhakar was run out (that was when he was run out) and India needed 6 off 4. Maninder came to the crease. He managed 4 off the 3rd and 4th, but was bowled by Waugh on the 5th. India had successfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory!

orig from corsair@*udel.edu ?

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