In 1987, the spectacle of cricket moved away from the home of cricket in England to the subcontinent. While there weren't many changes to the format, there was a reduction in the number of overs per innings to 50. This was more to facilitate completion of matches considering shortened days in the subcontinent during the winter. The 1987 Reliance Cup, as it was known, would also be the last time that a World Cup would be played in white clothing with a red ball and comprise day matches. The event lasted one month making it the longest ever cricket tournament until then.

Pakistan played Sri Lanka in the opening match in a Group B encounter and won comfortably by 15 runs. Javed Miandad (103) and Rameez Raja (76) shone for Pakistan while Roshan Mahanama (89) and Aravinda de Silva (46) made a fight of it for Sri Lanka. In the end, the talent of the Pakistan bowling proved too much to handle. On the same day, England beat the West Indies by 2 wickets to get off to a flyer. Viv Richards wasn't his destructive best, but still managed a 53. A fresh young West Indian bowling attack could not contain Allan Lamb (67) though as England registered a close win.

The event got an absolute rollicking start when India played Australia on the second day. Set 271 to win, India was well on their way needing 71 off 95 balls with plenty of wickets in hand. But Navjot Sidhu, who was doing some solid hitting, holed out trying to get his sixth six of the innings and the slide began. By the time the last over came about, India needed 8 runs to win with just two wickets in hand. Manoj Prabhakar scored two and was run out changing the equation to six off 4 balls. Maninder Singh came in next and managed a four bringing the match firmly into India's grasp, but with just two needed, Steve Waugh struck. Australia had beaten India by one run. This was the match where the controversy of a six and four was involved. A Dean Jones hit was deemed to be a four by the scorers but the umpires eventually changed it to a six. Whether that was right or not remains a point of debate. For Australia, Craig McDermott with 4/56 and Geoff Marsh with 110 were the starts. But the real start was Steve Waugh who came into his own as an all-rounder and as Dean Jones put it, "climbed the Mount Everest of cricket".

The rest of the matches went as per expectation with India, England and Pakistan winning consistently. Australia was doing exceptionally well all along but the one team that was finding the conditions tough was the West Indies. With a battery of quick bowlers and dustbowls to bowl on, the West Indian quicks found it tough. And with Viv Richards as the main spinner, defending totals or containing opposition teams was always going to be tough. With two losses to England and one to Pakistan, they were always going to be up against it. When they lost their last match to Pakistan, they were knocked out of the World Cup before the semi-finals for the first time ever. Had they won this match, they would have been tied with England on points and maybe even progressed on superior run-rate.

The fourth team in Group B, Sri Lanka, turned out to be the whipping boys. As was the case with Zimbabwe in Group A, they lost all 6 matches and in all honesty, despite some good individual performances, neither side looked capable of winning a single match. At the time, Sri Lanka was also among the minnows of world cricket.

Group A is where things were getting interesting, though. It was clear that India and Australia would progress to the next stage. New Zealand had two wins to their credit, but both were against Zimbabwe (including one by just 3 runs) and were not troubling India or Australia enough. Having lost to Australia in the opening match, India had to ensure they finished on top of Group A to avoid playing Pakistan in the semi-final and they managed it but only thanks to a better run-rate than Australia. India's strong batting order shone through during the tournament with all the main batsmen scoring regularly. Sunil Gavaskar scored his first and only ODI century in addition to two sparkling 50s.

England and Pakistan were the top two teams from Group B to make it through and Pakistan was clearly the superior side. England made it through only because Pakistan beat West Indies in their last group match. The possibilities this set up for the finals were quite exciting. On the one hand there was the possibility of an India v Pakistan match while on the other it could have been England v Australia. As things turned out, the old Ashes rivals would battle it out for the biggest prize in cricket.

Australia played Pakistan in the first semi-final in Lahore and put up a good score of 267 in 50 overs. David Boon, who would eventually be the topscorer for Australia, scored 65. Imran Khan picked up 3/36 in his spell of 10 overs to contain the Australian scoring. In reply, Pakistan got off to a shaky start and was reduced to 37 for 3 when Javed Miandad (70) and Imran Khan (58) forged a partnership of 112 to put the Pakistan reply on track. But once Imran fell with the score on 150, Pakistan kept losing wickets regularly and eventually, a lone fight by Miandad fell short by 18 runs.

Over in Bombay (now Mumbai), England forged through to a competitive 254 thanks to a 115 by Graham Gooch and a fine 56 by captain Mike Gatting. Allan Lamb added the finishing touches with a 29-ball 32. Maninder Singh was once again the star for India with three wickets but he also conceded 54 runs in 10 overs, the most expensive of all bowlers, which may well have been the difference between the two teams in the final analysis. The Indian innings in reply never got off and the biggest partnership was of 51 between Srikkanth and Sidhu. India lost wickets constantly and eventually fell short by 35 runs. Even a fighting 64 from Mohammed Azharuddin would not be enough. Interestingly, Eddie Hemmings with 4/52 was the most successful English bowler.

The final would now be two old foes, although not the teams that hosts would have hoped for! But England v Australia in the World Cup final was a good enough match-up and the match lived up to all expectations.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Building on some strong partnerships right from the start, they powered their way to 253. David Boon led the way once again with a strong 75 and Mike Veletta contributed 45. England had bowled well enough and the target, though, strong, was not imposing. England's reply began poorly and despite some good batting from the middle order, they could not stem the fall of wickets. Bill Athey topscored with 58 while Allan Lamb and Mike Gatting contributed 45 and 41 respectively. Things were getting close and Phil DeFreitas was smacking the ball all around and getting England closer to the target. But Bruce Reid pulled off a marvellous catch on the boundary to end his innings and put paid to any hopes England may have nurtured.

But Dean Jones thinks that the turning point had come about earlier when Mike Gatting had himself caught attempting a reverse sweep. "(It was) Crucial. He knows now he shouldn't have played that reverse sweep but if he had hit it for four then it wouldn't be remembered now," says Jones about Gatting. Australia won the final by just 7 runs and announced their intentions of world domination!

The Australian victory was attributed in large parts to fitness. It has been often said that the 1987 squad was the fittest Australian team ever (until that time). The other factor was small psychological games that their coach Bob Simpson played. He made the team get up and work out at 6 am on the front lawn of the hotel as New Zealand were leaving for the airport. Word spread that the Aussies meant business and that afforded them a psychological edge.

Recollecting the World Cup, Steve Waugh writes in his book that this was the tournament that defined him as an all-rounder. At the time, his Test career was in the doldrums and it was his success in ODIs that gave him a second shot at Tests.

The first World Cup outside England had proved to be extremely successful. It was also a World Cup that had a lot of lasts like white clothing and red balls… but the world order had clearly changed and the West Indies were not going to be at the top for too long.

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