World Championship of Cricket
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The Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket was a One Day International tournament held in February and March 1985 in Australia.
This tournament was a Mini-World Cup involving all of the then Test match playing countries at the time celebrating 150 years of the Australian state of Victoria. The matches were played at the Melbourne (MCG) and Sydney (SCG) Cricket Grounds The seven teams were split into two groups.
Group A - Australia, England, India and Pakistan
Group B - New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies.
Group A : The tournament began with a clash between the two Ashes protagonists, Australia beating England. This was the first to be played underneath the MCG's floodlights. Neither of them got to the semi finals. India captained by Sunil Gavaskar won all their matches in the group with Pakistan as runners up. An 18 year old Wasim Akram made a name for himself taking 5-21 in a defeat of Australia.
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | L | RR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 India |
6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4.42 |
 Pakistan |
4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4.39 |
 Australia |
2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3.98 |
 England |
0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3.41 |
In Group B, both New Zealand and the West Indies beat the then newcomers to Tests Sri Lanka to get to the semis. The match between the two was rained off.
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | L | NR | RR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 West Indies |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5.87 |
 New Zealand |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.07 |
 Sri Lanka |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.16 |
In the semi finals India overcame New Zealand by 7 wickets and Pakistan beat favourites the West Indies by the same margin. This led to rivals India and Pakistan meeting in the final at the MCG whilst West Indies beat New Zealand in the 3rd place playoff.
Semi Finals:
March 5 1985 - SCG
New Zealand 206 (50 overs) John Reid 55 Madan Lal 4-37
India 207-3 (43.3 overs) Dilip Vengsarkar 63, Kapil Dev 54*, Ravi Shastri 53
India won by 7 wickets
March 6 1985 - MCG
West Indies 159 (44.3 overs) Mudassar Nazar 5-28
Pakistan 160-3 (46 overs) Rameez Raja 60
Pakistan won by 7 wickets
Third Place Play-Off
March 9 1985 - SCG
New Zealand 138-9 (50 overs) Joel Garner 3-29
West Indies 139-4 (37.2 overs) Viv Richards 51* Richard Hadlee 3-23
West Indies won by 6 wickets
[edit] Final
In the final itself India restricted Pakistan to a score of 176-9 of 50 overs thanks to their bowling attack lead by Kapil Dev and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. India went on to victory scoring 177-2 in 44 overs. Krish Srikkanth and man of the series Ravi Shastri scoring half centuries. India won this event, coupled with the 1983 Cricket World Cup win.
Benson and Hedges World Championship Final
March 10 1985 - MCG
Pakistan 176-9 (50 overs) Javed Miandad 48, Kapil Dev 3-23
India 177-2 (47.1 overs) Kris Srikkanth 67, Ravi Shastri 63*
India won by 8 wickets
Ravi Shastri was given the player of the tournament award called "Champion of Champions" for his all-round performance. Shastri scored 183 runs (including 3 fifties) and took 8 wickets in five matches.
This was the only instance of the World Championship of Cricket.
