by Arunabha Sengupta
8 Nov 1987.
It was worth travelling half the world just to look at the smile on Allan Border’s normally grumpy face.
A couple of days ago, in India’s semi-final against England, skipper Kapil Dev’s attempted slog-sweep had ended up in the hands of his opposite number Mike Gatting. That had changed the game and India, from a rather comfortable position, had slumped into a heart-breaking defeat. Gatting had termed the stroke “silly” under the circumstances.
And then, in the final, with England cruising at 135 for 2 after 31 overs, in pursuit of a victory target of 254, the same Gatting tried to reverse-sweep his Australian counterpart Border. The ball hit the shoulder of the bat, went straight up, and descended in a gentle, soothing arc. Wicket-keeper Greg Dyer was so surprised that he almost made a mess of it. In the end the gloves did close around it. As the stocky English skipper walked back dejectedly, he must have been feeling more than a bit stupid himself.
There was no reason for the Eden Gardens crowd to be partisan. Most of them had wanted a Indo-Pak final, but both the sides had been upset in the semis. Perhaps the memories of the Raj still lingered 40 years after Independence. The Australians were cheered on as Allan Lamb stood between them and the World Cup.
The Australian total of 253 might not have been achieved but for a largely forgotten gem of an innings by the unheralded Mike Veletta. 188 for 4 from 44 overs had not looked very competitive. But, then, Veletta got stuck into Phil DeFreitas, and plundered 45 from just 31 balls as Australia managed 65 in the last 6 overs.
Now, with the dusk falling quickly on that November afternoon in Calcutta, England panicked. Going for a third run, the set Bill Athey was run out by a 22-year-old Steve Waugh. The dependable Paul Downton threw his wicket away — once again to the apparently innocuous Border. And at 218, John Emburey, dangerous in the last few seasons with his unorthodox batting manoeuvres, became yet another run out victim.
Everything Border tried came off — as had been the story of the last few weeks. His ploy of bringing Craig McDermott for a 2-over spell in the middle of the innings checked the run-rate and built immense pressure. And finally, his persistence with Steve Waugh’s ice cool nerves in the final overs was rewarded gloriously.
Lamb fell for 45 with England still some distance away. 220 for 7, with just a bit more than 3 overs to go, Waugh and McDermott to share the bowling, T-20 revolution twenty years away. It was quite hopeless.
Yet, there was a final twist in the tale. DeFreitas never quite lived up to the ‘new Botham’ tag. However, now he produced a glimpse of some Bothamesque hitting ability as he clubbed McDermott for 4, 6 and 4 in the next over.
At the other end though, an unruffled Waugh’s cunning variations were submerged under his apparent harmless medium-pace offerings. When the last of English hopes tried to launch into him the same way as he had bludgeoned McDermott, he skied to the outfield where the towering Bruce Reid gratefully got under it. Only 2 runs resulted from the 49th over. With 9 wickets down, Neil Foster and Gladstone Small were required to get 17 off the last over from McDermott. There was no way that was going to happen.
Australia triumphed by 7 runs — a brilliant turnaround achieved by a side that had rebuilt itself from scratch … following the retirements of Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee just three years earlier.
As we said in the beginning, it was worth travelling half the world just to watch the normally taciturn Allan Border’s delighted smile as he held aloft the trophy.