Australia beat England to win the final at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata for the first of their five World Cup titles. Graham Gooch, the England opener, was the leading scorer of the tournament with 471 runs and Craig McDermott of Australia picked up the most wickets (18). The fourth edition of the World Cup, also known as Reliance Cup 1987, was co-hosted by India and Pakistan from October 8 to November 8, 1987. This was the first World Cup to be held outside England.
This tournament also witnessed the first hat-trick in World Cup history when Chetan Sharma of India performed the task against New Zealand in their final group match. Navjot Singh Sidhu of India hit nine sixes during the tournament — the highest number of sixes by a player during a single tournament until then. He hit four fifties in consecutive innings, a contemporary record.
A total of 27 matches were played and the one-day format was unchanged from the eight-team 1983 event — except for a reduction in the number of overs to 50 per team. The teams were Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, England, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and West Indies, of which Australia, Pakistan, England and India were the semi-finalists.
— The writer is an intern at Gulf News