With the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup just days away, we build up to the mega event by looking back at some fantastic bowling performances in the tournament over the years. In the second part, we look at Winston Davis’ 7 for 51 for West Indies against Australia during the group match of the 1983 World Cup on June 11, 1983.
Teams
West Indies: C Greenidge, D Haynes, IVA Richards, H Gomes, C Lloyd, S Bacchus, P Dujon, A Roberts,, M Holding, W Daniel and W Davis
Australia
G Wood, K Wessels, K Hughes, D Hookes, G Yallop, A Border, K MacLeay, R Marsh, G Lawson, R Hogg and D Lillee
Toss: Australia won, and chose to field
The setting: Thiswas a group game of the 1983 World Cup that was played at Headingley, Leeds. The West Indians were off to a disastrous start, losing their first three wickets with only 32 runs on the board. The situation only got worse for the West Indies as they lost their skipper Clive Lloyd for 19, to slip to 78 for 4. Larry Gomes and Faoud Bacchus then rescued the situation for the West Indies. Gomes top-scored with a fighting 78 from 153 balls with four fours, and Bacchus contributed 47 from 59 balls with five fours. With help from the tail, West Indies got to 252 for 9. Geoff Lawson’s was Australia’s most successful bowler with three wickets.
The great bowling performance: Although 252 was a competitive score in 60 overs back in the 1980s, Australia would have been silently confident of chasing down the score, knowing they had the batting for the same. But, while they might have feared Michael Holding and Andy Robert, they wouldn’t have taken into account the Winston Davis factor, which eventually made the difference. Davis ran in hard, and almost every time he came on to bowl, managed to find the breakthrough. It was that kind of a day for him.
Davis began by claiming the big scalp of opposition captain Kim Hughes, whom he dismissed for 18. That was just the beginning though as Davis went on to send back many more accomplished Aussie batsmen. He got rid of David Hookes, who was well set on 45, Graham Yallop for 29 and Allan Border for 17. He added the scalps of Ken MacLeay and Lawson. He finished with magnificent figures of 7 for 51 from 10.3 overs, a record for best bowling figures ever in ODIs back then.
The result: Roberts and Holding claimed one wicket each and opener Graeme Wood retired hurt as West Indies kept Australia down to 151, and won the match by a massive margin of 101 runs.
--By A Cricket Analyst
