1979 Cricket World Cup

Result

Player of the Match (Final)

Vivian Richards, West Indies

Tournament format

8 teams -- the same six Test nations, plus two qualifiers (Sri Lanka and Canada) who came through the newly created 1979 ICC Trophy, the first time World Cup places had to be earned via qualification. Same two-groups-of-four round-robin structure feeding semi-finals and a final as 1975.

Full match archive

Every match of the 1979 tournament, not just the final — all 14 group-stage and semi-final matches, plus the final round-robin standings. See all 14 matches →

Final: match context

West Indies retained their title as the second Cricket World Cup, again hosted entirely by England, produced a final that looked competitive on the scorecard but was, in practice, thoroughly one-sided. West Indies beat England by 92 runs at a sold-out Lord's in front of a crowd in the low 30,000s, becoming the format's first two-time champions. Put in to bat after England won the toss, West Indies slipped to 99 for 4, in some trouble against tight English bowling. From there Viv Richards produced one of the era's defining one-day innings, an unbeaten 138 off 157 balls studded with 11 fours and 3 sixes, finding an unlikely ally in the lower order: Collis King joined him and blazed 86 off just 66 balls, the pair adding a rapid stand that transformed the innings almost single-handedly. Richards farmed the strike expertly in the closing overs, and West Indies finished on 286 for 9 -- a total that, on that Lord's pitch, always looked competitive rather than overwhelming. England's reply began solidly: captain Mike Brearley (64) and the metronomic Geoffrey Boycott (57) put on 129 for the first wicket, and for a long stretch of the innings England were, on paper, in the contest. But their tempo was fatally cautious for the target they were chasing, and once Derek Randall was dismissed the innings disintegrated with startling speed -- England lost their last 8 wickets for just 11 runs, a collapse still remembered as one of the most devastating in World Cup history. Joel Garner was the chief destroyer, taking 5 for 38 including a spell that ran through England's middle and lower order almost unanswered, with Michael Holding and Colin Croft mopping up what remained. England were bowled out for 194 in 51 overs, the 92-run margin flattering them relative to how the match had actually felt in its final half hour. England's run to the final was itself a landmark -- the first time any team from outside the Caribbean, Australasia or the Asian subcontinent had reached a Cricket World Cup final -- but the result reinforced, emphatically, that the sport's new one-day format currently belonged to West Indies more than anyone else. Their pace battery of Roberts, Holding, Garner and Croft, still developing into the most feared attack in the world, combined with Richards's emerging genius to make the Caribbean side utterly dominant across the tournament's first two editions -- a stretch of success no side would match again until Australia's run in the 2000s.

Sources

• Wikipedia: 1979 Cricket World Cup
• Wikipedia: 1979 Cricket World Cup final
• ESPNcricinfo