Logistics were a massive concern as twenty-one venues were scheduled to host the tournament that spanned exactly a month (October 8 to November 8, 1987).

The organisers took a chance with an early season start as thankfully, the rain gods kept away for most of the matches in the early stages.

The first few matches set the rocking pace as the holders and co-hosts India fell to dark horses Australia by a run in their opening match of Group A. The match was reminiscent of the Tied Test between the two sides just the previous year. In this match too, it was tailender Maninder Singh who had to face the final over and he failed once again, giving Australia a win they most definitely deserved.

The Australians had failed in the previous World Cup and in this tournament were led by Allan Border, the reluctant leader. Youngsters like Steve Waugh, David Boon, Tom Moody and Craig McDermott made up an efficient team but a side that had few people believing that they could actually win the trophy.

However, favourites Pakistan were led by the incomparable Imran Khan and had the likes of Javed Miandad and a young pretender named Wasim Akram. They had a faulty start with a 15-run close victory over Sri Lanka.

Some of the matches were really tight in the preliminary stages of this tournament with associate member Zimbabwe giving New Zealand a huge scare as they lost only by three runs in their first match in Hyderabad (India).

But India were resurgent, winning the rest of their group stage matches with some ease. They were skippered by Kapil Dev, at the peak of his powers, and were maneuvered by the greatest opener of them all, Sunil Gavaskar, in his final lap in international cricket. He hit his first one-day hundred a superb 103* against New Zealand in his penultimate World Cup match.

Reliance Cup, as it is seldom called, will also be remembered for one massive gesture from one of the greatest personalities in cricket. West Indies were not having their best tournament as they gave away 35 runs off the last three overs against England to lose by three wickets. In their next match against Pakistan, Courtney Walsh (destined for greatness later in his career) decided to be a sportsman and stopped short of running out non-striker Salim Jaffer. His gesture created quite a stir but as time passed, it was judged as one of the truly amazing sporting moments in cricket. West Indies lost by just one wicket some say that the run-out cost them the World Cup. History judged Walsh in a different light after that.

There was another amazing story, this time coming from the Indian camp. Navjot Singh Sidhu made a comeback in the tournament after being acquitted off a manslaughter case. At the lowest point of his personal life, Sidhu came out of his shell and launched into the bowlers, hitting four half-centuries in the tournament, that too in a row.

Viv Richards hit the then-highest one-day score of 181 against Sri Lanka in a preliminary match in which his country scored 360 and won by 191 runs.

One especial virtue in staging the World Cup in India and Pakistan was that spin had a full part to play, whereas previous competitions in England had been dominated by repetitive seamers. Not one over of spin was risked in the 1975 final.

Australia were untypical in that they usually allotted only ten overs to spin; the majority of teams fielded two spinners and benefited on the slow batting pitches that prevailed. In the qualifying rounds, seven of the nine most economical bowlers were spinners. That said, the leading wicket-takers were both fast bowlers, Craig McDermott equalling the World Cup record of eighteen and Imran Khan capturing seventeen in one match less.

Batsmen were not troubled by dew when batting first, as some had feared, but by the strain of batting second. Out of 27 matches, nineteen were won by the side batting first. The received wisdom had been to bowl first in one-day internationals and to determine the target. Now every side wanted to bat first, then watch the opposition fatigued by three and a half hours; fielding in the heat, make mistakes and panic as the run-rate climbed to 7 and 8 an over. The side batting first played the ball according to its merits; the side batting second seemed to play it according to the run-rate required.

In this context, Australia were fortunate to bat first in five of their six qualifying games, and to be able to do so again in their semifinal and final, on pitches which lost what bounce they had. This luck aside, they were still the team most deserving of victory: they appeared to put the most into the tournament, the sweat was dripping from the peaks of the batsmen's caps when they warmed up in Madras, and they gained their first success of note since 1984. England, the runners-up, arrived with a specialist in tropical diseases and a microwave oven but with only three batsmen capable of scoring at a run a ball. They won whenever their bowlers were able to make up for the deficiencies in their batting.