1979 Prudential World Cup

Hosts: England
Winners: West Indies
Runners-up: England
Most runs: Gordon Greenidge (WI) 253 runs
Most wickets: Mike Hendrick (ENG) 10 wickets

The second edition of the cricket World Cup was identical to the first in many respects. England hosted the tournament again and it followed the same format of round-robin leading to the semi-final stage contested by eight teams. Canada made their debut replacing East Africa from the first edition.

For the first time a qualifying tournament was held for the associate countries which was won by Sri Lanka.

Australia entered a relatively weaker squad as most of their stars were still playing in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. But Pakistan and West Indies accommodated all the players who were part of the rebel league.

England were again run-away winners in Group A as they won all their three matches. Pakistan beat Australia and Canada to qualify for their maiden semi-final. In Group B, West Indies led by Clive Lloyd once again topped the group, while New Zeaaland finished second. India were the biggest casualty losing all their matches, one to minnows Sri Lanka.

In the first semi-final, half-centuries by Graham Gooch (71) and Mike Brearley (53) helped England post 221/8 in 60 overs. New Zealand looked good initially with John Wright's 69, but lost wickets consistently to eventually get beaten by 9 runs.

West Indies were the favourites against Pakistan and the opening pair of Gordon Greenidge (73) and Desmond Haynes (65) put on 132 runs for the opening wicket to lay the foundations for a big total of 293 runs.

A classy 93 by Zaheer Abbas and Majid Khan's 81 kept Pakistan in the challenge but the they lost the plot after Abbas' dismissal to end up all out on 250 to send the Windies to their 2nd final.

England won the toss and elected to field first in the final. The hosts made early inroads as West Indies were down to 99/4. But that set the stage for one of the finest rearguards seen in World Cups. Viv Richards and Collis King came together to post a 139-runs stand with King smashing the English attack to smithereens with a 66-ball 86. Richards batted on to finish unbeaten on 138 and took the Windies total to 286/9.

The English openers Mike Brearly (64 from 130 balls) and Geoff Boycott (57 from 105 balls), laid a solid but slow foundation and the hosts were never up to the task as they folded for 194. Joel Garner took 5 wickets in the final to help West Indies their second consecutive World Cup. Viv Richards was adjudged the 'Man of the Series'.