On this day in 1979: The incident that introduced field restrictions in ODI cricket

Floodlights made their debut in international cricket during the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup in the 1979-80 season. The Tri-nation tournament featured England and West Indies alongside the hosts Australia. The tournament opener was played on November 27th between Australia and West Indies at Sydney Cricket ground which became the first-ever International match to be played under lights.

West Indies, the two time WC champions lost the match by five wickets and were slated to face England on the very next day. West Indies got a chance to bat second this time after winning the toss. The England team did a decent job to finish on 211/8 thanks to the contributions from Peter Willey (58), Derek Randall (49) and David Gower (44). Rain brought down the West Indies’ target to 199 from 47 overs. Three of Caribbean’s top four scored 40+ runs to lay a strong foundation in the chase.

Lawrence Rowe (60), Alvin Kallicharran (44) and Gordon Greenidge (42) were the top performers with the bat for West Indies who reached 133 for the loss of two wickets only. But Derek Underwood turned the game on its head with his 4-wicket haul which cleaned up the middle and lower order of West Indies to leave them at 186/9. Joel Garner and Colin Croft was the last pair at the crease for West Indies who needed to chase ten runs from the last over.

A genius move

Ian Botham was handed the responsibility to defend ten runs but seven runs came across the first five deliveries itself. With three needed from the last ball, the England captain Mike Brearley pushed all his fielders to the fence. Brearley, who was well known for his tactical onus, even summoned the wicketkeeper, David Bairstow, to long stop. The plans to avoid a boundary went well for the England team as the No.11 batsman Croft got his leg stump uprooted trying to play a flick shot off Botham.

Brearley was allowed to put as many as ten players at the boundary due to no field restrictions until the start of 1980s. Calls for restricting the number of fielders to be placed at the boundary raised after this game which were eventually introduced during the 1980-81 Australian season. The format continued to evolve with respect to the field restrictions after the introduction of powerplay in the 1992 World Cup.