Today we talk about the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979. Let’s dwell on more interesting and intriguing details of the world cup cricket history. In this connection, today we bring to you the 5 best batting partnerships of the 1979 cricket world cup. In that historical tournament, many powerful teams had many great legends as part of their batting line-ups. Thus, despite facing some of the quickest and fiercest bowlers they made some great scores and built many match-winning partnerships. Here are the the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979.
5. Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott (129 Runs)
While chasing 286 runs against West Indies in the 1979 cricket world cup final, the English openers got their team off to a solid start. Mike Bearley and Geoff Boycott put together 129 runs for the opening wicket. While the captain Bearley scored 64 runs, Boycott made 57. The two however batted with a very slow pace scoring of just around 3 runs per over.
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That would later prove counterproductive as the English middle-order batters needed to score runs very quickly to chase the formidable 286 runs total set by the West Indians. The England middle-order batsmen in a bid to accelerate the scoring got out quickly and cheaply. The whole team was dismissed for 194 runs and the West Indies thus won the 1979 cricket world cup final by 92 runs. Among the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979.
4. Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes (132 Runs)
The West Indies side chose to bat first against Pakistan in the 1979 cricket world cup semi-final at the Oval cricket ground. Their top-order batsmen began to fire with all guns blazing right from the word go. Greenidge and Haynes laid another very solid foundation to the innings scoring 73 and 65 runs respectively. The built an opening partnership of 132 runs with a healthy scoring rate.
This powered the West Indies to score 293 runs in their 60 overs. It was the highest total of the whole tournament. The Pakistan team despite great knocks by their top-order batsmen fell short by 43 runs in the chase. West Indies team hence booked its place in the final of the 1979 cricket world cup. The Clive Lloyd led team would later defeat the hosts England in the tournament decider at Lord’s and thus became the world champions again. Among the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979.
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3. Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes (138 Runs)
Haynes and Greenidge formed one of the most successful opening batting pairs in the cricket history. They also provided some great starts to the West Indies in the 1979 cricket world cup. The West Indies restricted Indian batting order to just 190 runs when the two sides met at Edgbaston. The Caribbean batting was given a solid foundation by Greenidge and Haynes putting on 138 runs opening partnership.
The West Indian thus chased the total easily in 52 overs with 9 wickets still in hand. While Desmond Haynes was dismissed by Kapil Dev after scoring 47 runs, Gordon Greenidge remained unbeaten on 106 runs to see his side through till victory. He put together another 58 runs unbeaten partnership with Vivian Richards. Among the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979.
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2. Vivian Richards and Collis King (139 Runs)
West Indies were the pre-match favorites of the 1979 cricket world cup final. They however seemed to be losing the plot against hosts England early in the match. The Caribbean side lost their 4 top order batsmen for the score of just 99 runs. Vivian Richards, their star batsman was still on the crease. He was joined by Collis King and the two put together a brisk and brilliant 139 runs partnership 5th wicket to take their side out of any possible danger. They took the attack to the English bowlers by batting aggressively.
While Richards scored a match-winning knock of 138 runs, King also played an equally important inning of 86 from just 66 balls. West Indies thus posed a total of 286 runs which the English team found too big to chase. The Caribbean side had pulled one more cricket world cup victory. Viv Richards was awarded man of the match in the all-important final of the 1979 cricket world cup. Among the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979.
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1. Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas (166 Runs)
In the first semi-final of the 1979 cricket world cup, Pakistan took on the mighty defending champions West Indies. The Caribbean team had batted first and their batsmen put together a great total of 293 runs in the 60 overs. In response, the Pakistani top order batters showed some great intend in their innings. Their two best batsmen Majid Khan and Zaheer Abbas put together 166 runs for the 2nd wicket partnership.
Khan scored 81 runs while Abbas made 93. It seemed that the Pakistanis may hand the West Indian their first-ever world cup defeat. They however lost the plot as soon as the two were dismissed. Pakistan then got all out on 250 runs with no other batsman able to stay at the crease for long. Even the gutsy partnership of Khan and Abbas was not enough to steer Pakistan through and beat the mighty Caribbean side. Led the best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979.
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Those were the 5 best batting partnerships at the Cricket World Cup 1979. We hope that you found the article interesting and enriching while waiting for your valuable feedback in the comments section.
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