History of the ICC cricket World Cup: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s performance (Part 1)
Australia has dominated world cricket for years in every format of the game. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the team have been able to secure record-breaking performances in the ICC (International Cricket Council) World
Cup tournaments as well. Australia have made it through to 6 of the 9 World Cup finals played taking home the trophy a record 4 times. Here is a brief glance back at Australia’s performance in all the 9 World Cup tournaments.
1975: The inaugural ICC World Cup was staged in 1975 on English soil. Australia came into the tournament with high hopes and had an impressive team. However, the mighty http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 of that era was acknowledged
by all to be the favourites to bag the trophy.
Australia cruised past the group stages to meet the hosts, England, in the semi-final. The home side batted first and was demolished by the Australian bowlers. England managed to score a humble total of 93 before the entire team
was sent packing. Australia made the miserly target look difficult as they lost 6 wickets before wrapping up the match to book a place in the final.
Australia were to face the dreaded West Indies team in the final. West Indies, captained by the great Clive Lloyd, reached 291/8 in the allotted 60 overs. Lloyd played a blistering innings of 102 of 85 balls to put his team on
top. Australia’s chase was marked by disastrous running between the wickets. At one stage, the match seemed to be evenly balanced but one run-out after the other derailed the Australian innings. Australia lost 5 of its ten wickets through catastrophic run-outs.
The team was eventually bundled out for 274 ending its first World Cup campaign as the runners-up to champions West Indies.
1979: Just four years after participating in the World Cup final, Australia faced disaster in the second edition of the tournament in 1979. They failed to make it past the group stages winning only 1 of three matches
they played. The lone win came against minnows http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 progressed to the semi-finals.
1983: Australia failed to reach the semi-final stages of the World Cup yet again in 1983. They were grouped with West Indies, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045. After 2 rounds of matches amongst the teams in the groups, Australia
managed to scrap away only 2 wins in 6 matches. Eventual finalists West Indies and India progressed to the semi-finals. India went on to defeat the mighty West Indies to pull off an upset World Cup victory.
1987: Australia were to leave behind the memories of the previous two World Cup campaigns before coming to the 1987 World Cup. The tournament was held in India and Pakistan; this was the first time that the competition
was staged outside of England. Australia swiftly qualified for the semi-final losing just one of six group stage matches.
In the semi, Australia were up against the hosts Pakistan. After winning the toss, Australia chose to bat first. At one stage, they looked to reach a score of over 300; however, loss of wickets in quick succession checked the Australian
progress. Eventually the home side was set a target of 268 to chase in 50 overs. The Australian bowlers started well as they bagged 3 early Pakistan wickets. A partnership between Imran Khan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Javed-Miandad-c66580 steadied the ship for the batting side. However,
after their demise, the incoming batsmen had too much to do as the run-rate had crept up to over 7 runs per over. Pakistan failed to reach the target, putting Australia through to its second World Cup final where they faced bitter rivals England.
End of Part 1, the article continues in Part 2
Tags: