# 1980–81 Australia Tri-Nation Series

The 1980–81 Australia Tri-Nation Series (more commonly known as the 1980–81 World Series) was a cricket tournament held in Australia from 23 November 1980 to 3 February 1981. It was the second edition of the Australian Tri-Series, with Australia playing host to India and New Zealand. The series was a part of the Indian and New Zealand tours.
After matches were played in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth throughout the entire group-stage, Australia and New Zealand qualified for the finals where after the underarm incident in the third final, Australia went on to win 3–1.

## Points Table

| Team | P | W | L | T | NR | Pts | RR |
| Australia | 10 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 4.259 |
| New Zealand | 10 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 4.109 |
| India | 10 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3.947 |

## Fixtures

* 23 November 1980 Scorecard
| Australia 217/9 (50 overs) | v | New Zealand 219/7 (49.1 overs) |
| John Dyson 69 (120) Ewen Chatfield 5/34 (10 overs) | | John Wright 60 (128) Dennis Lillee 3/40 (10 overs) |
* New Zealand won by 3 wickets Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Umpires: Tony Crafter (Aus) and Peter Cronin (Aus) Player of the match: Ewen Chatfield (NZ)
* New Zealand won the toss and elected to field.
* Shaun Graf, Trevor Chappell, Geoff Lawson (Aus) and Martin Snedden (NZ) all made their ODI debuts.
* 25 November 1980 Scorecard
| Australia 289/3 (50 overs) | v | New Zealand 195 (42.5 overs) |
| Greg Chappell 138* (109) Paul McEwan 1/51 (10 overs) | | Geoff Howarth 46 (76) Len Pascoe 5/30 (7.5 overs) |
* Australia won by 94 runs Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Robin Bailhache (Aus) and Mel Johnson (Aus) Player of the match: Greg Chappell (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to bat.
* Ian Smith (NZ) made his ODI debut.
* 6 December 1980 Scorecard
| India 208/9 (49 overs) | v | Australia 142 (42.1 overs) |
| Sandeep Patil 64 (70) Dennis Lillee 2/22 (7 overs) | | Kim Hughes 35 (53) Dilip Doshi 3/32 (10 overs) |
* India won by 66 runs Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: Max O'Connell (Aus) and Rex Whitehead (Aus) Player of the match: Sandeep Patil (Ind)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.
* Tirumalai Srinivasan, Kirti Azad, Sandeep Patil, Roger Binny and Dilip Doshi (Ind) all made their ODI debuts.
* 7 December 1980 Scorecard
| New Zealand 156 (49.5 overs) | v | Australia 159/6 (47.2 overs) |
| John Wright 57 (119) Len Pascoe 4/37 (9.5 overs) | | Greg Chappell 48 (70) Stephen Boock 2/30 (10 overs) |
* Australia won by 4 wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: Dick French (Aus) and Robin Bailhache (Aus) Player of the match: Allan Border (Aus)
* New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat.
* 9 December 1980 Scorecard
| India 162 (47.4 overs) | v | New Zealand 157 (49.5 overs) |
| Sandeep Patil 39 (73) Richard Hadlee 5/32 (9 overs) | | Paul McEwan 41 (76) Roger Binny 4/41 (9.5 overs) |
* India won by 5 runs WACA Ground, Perth Umpires: Tony Crafter (Aus) and Donald Weser (Aus) Player of the match: Richard Hadlee (NZ)
* India won the toss and elected to bat.
* 18 December 1980 (D/N) Scorecard
| India 180/9 (49 overs) | v | Australia 183/1 (42.2 overs) |
| Gundappa Viswanath 43 (80) Shaun Graf 2/23 (10 overs) | | Allan Border 105* (122) Kapil Dev 1/27 (8 overs) |
* Australia won by 9 wickets Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Dick French (Aus) and Rex Whitehead (Aus) Player of the match: Allan Border (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.
* 21 December 1980 Scorecard
| India 204 (48.5 overs) | v | New Zealand 205/7 (48.4 overs) |
| Kapil Dev 75 (51) Gary Troup 4/19 (9 overs) | | Jeremy Coney 47* (52) Dilip Doshi 4/30 (10 overs) |
* New Zealand won by 3 wickets The Gabba, Brisbane Umpires: Dick French (Aus) and Mel Johnson (Aus) Player of the match: Kapil Dev (Ind)
* India won the toss and elected to bat.
* Yograj Singh (Ind) made his ODI debut.
* 23 December 1980 Scorecard
| India 230/7 (50 overs) | v | New Zealand 224 (49.3 overs) |
| Yashpal Sharma 72 (105) Martin Snedden 3/30 (10 overs) | | Jeremy Coney 49* (63) Dilip Doshi 2/34 (10 overs) Kapil Dev 2/34 (9.3 overs) |
* India won by 6 runs Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Umpires: Tony Crafter (Aus) and Max O'Connell (Aus) Player of the match: Yashpal Sharma (Ind)
* India won the toss and elected to bat.
* 8 January 1981 Scorecard
| India 63 (25.5 overs) | v | Australia 64/1 (21 overs) |
| Gundappa Viswanath 23 (22) Greg Chappell 5/15 (9.5 overs) | | Greg Chappell 33* (48) Kapil Dev 1/15 (9 overs) |
* Australia won by 9 wickets Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Max O'Connell (Aus) and Donald Weser (Aus) Player of the match: Greg Chappell (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.
* 10 January 1981 Scorecard
| India 112/9 (34 overs) | v | New Zealand 113/0 (29 overs) |
| Gundappa Viswanath 33 (52) Martin Snedden 2/16 (5 overs) | | Bruce Edgar 65* (89) |
* New Zealand won by 10 wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: Robin Bailhache (Aus) and Rex Whitehead (Aus) Player of the match: Bruce Edgar (NZ)
* New Zealand won the toss and elected to field.
* Match was reduced to 34 overs per side due to rain.
* 11 January 1981 Scorecard
| India 192/5 (50 overs) | v | Australia 193/3 (47.2 overs) |
| Sunil Gavaskar 80 (142) Greg Chappell 2/23 (10 overs) | | Graeme Wood 98* (155) Dilip Doshi 1/38 (10 overs) |
* Australia won by 7 wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: Dick French (Aus) and Peter Cronin (Aus) Player of the match: Graeme Wood (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.
* 13 January 1981 Scorecard
| New Zealand 220/8 (50 overs) | v | Australia 219/7 (50 overs) |
| John Wright 78 (135) Len Pascoe 3/37 (10 overs) | | Doug Walters 50* (72) Ewen Chatfield 1/26 (10 overs) |
* New Zealand won by 1 run Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Donald Weser (Aus) and Mel Johnson (Aus) Player of the match: John Wright (NZ)
* New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat.
* 15 January 1981 Scorecard
| Australia 242/8 (50 overs) | v | India 215/8 (50 overs) |
| Allan Border 85 (131) Sandeep Patil 2/34 (10 overs) | | Dilip Vengsarkar 52 (74) Dennis Lillee 4/32 (10 overs) |
* Australia won by 27 runs Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Donald Weser (Aus) and Rex Whitehead (Aus) Player of the match: Allan Border (Aus)
* India won the toss and elected to field.
* 18 January 1981 Scorecard
| New Zealand 242/9 (50 overs) | v | India 220 (48.1 overs) |
| Jeremy Coney 49 (58) Kapil Dev 3/37 (10 overs) | | Dilip Vengsarkar 66 (77) Jeremy Coney 3/28 (10 overs) |
* New Zealand won by 22 runs The Gabba, Brisbane Umpires: Peter Cronin (Aus) and Mel Johnson (Aus) Player of the match: Jeremy Coney (NZ)
* India won the toss and elected to field.
* 21 January 1981 Scorecard
| Australia 180 (43.1 overs) | v | New Zealand 23/1 (8 overs) |
| Greg Chappell 74 (80) Paul McEwan 2/29 (5 overs) | | John Wright 8 (33) Greg Chappell 1/1 (1 over) |
* No result Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Dick French (Aus) and Max O'Connell (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to bat.
* Rain during New Zealand's innings prevented any further play.

## Final series
### 1st Final

* 29 January 1981 (D/N) Scorecard
| New Zealand 233/6 (50 overs) | v | Australia 155 (39.3 overs) |
| John Wright 81 (111) Dennis Lillee 2/47 (10 overs) | | Allan Border 55 (74) Richard Hadlee 5/26 (8.3 overs) |
* New Zealand won by 78 runs Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Robin Bailhache (Aus) and Mel Johnson (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.
* Martin Kent (Aus) made his ODI debut.

### 2nd Final

* 31 January 1981 Scorecard
| New Zealand 126 (46.4 overs) | v | Australia 130/3 (39.3 overs) |
| Bruce Edgar 28 (56) Graeme Beard 2/20 (8.4 overs) | | Greg Chappell 58* (87) Geoff Howarth 1/13 (4 overs) |
* Australia won by 7 wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: Dick French (Aus) and Donald Weser (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.
* Graeme Beard (Aus) made his ODI debut.

### 3rd Final

* 1 February 1981 Scorecard
| Australia 235/4 (50 overs) | v | New Zealand 229/8 (50 overs) |
| Greg Chappell 90 (122) Martin Snedden 2/52 (10 overs) | | Bruce Edgar 102* (141) Greg Chappell 3/43 (10 overs) |
* Australia won by 6 runs Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Umpires: Peter Cronin (Aus) and Donald Weser (Aus)
* Australia won the toss and elected to bat.
* The match concluded with a controversial underarm delivery.

### 4th Final

* 3 February 1981 (D/N) Scorecard
| New Zealand 215/8 (50 overs) | v | Australia 218/4 (47.4 overs) |
| John Wright 57 (88) Dennis Lillee 3/27 (10 overs) | | Greg Chappell 87 (102) Martin Snedden 3/27 (9 overs) |
* Australia won by 6 wickets Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Umpires: Tony Crafter (Aus) and Robin Bailhache (Aus) Player of the match: Greg Chappell (Aus)
* New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat.
* With the result of this match, Australia won the 1980-81 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup.