Read the articles of Australia vs England 4th ODI 1979 - England tour of Australia 5-match one-day international series of the 4th ODI match played between England and Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne in 04th February 1979.
Maiden half-centuries from Kim Hughes, Peter Toohey and A late attacking burst by Gary Cosier and Trevor Laughlin helped to Australia thrilling four-wicket victory over England, despite an unbeaten century from David Gower and level the series with 1-1 in a tight-game of the fourth ODI of a Benson and Hedges Gold Cup.
The thrilling finish kept the 11,000 spectators in their seats until 7.15 p.m. and there was a tremendous cheer when Australian batsman Peter Toohey drove a delivery by England paceman lan Botham to the boundary to give Australia the win.
Australia won despite an unbeaten 101 by Leicestershire's David Gower, which won him the man-of-the-match award.
England batted first on a wicket still damp from rain on Saturday and they struggled until Gower went to the wicket with the score 50-3.
England finished with 212-6 off 40 overs and a late attacking burst by Australia enabled them to chased 215-6 in 38.6 avers.
Australia's hero was Toohey, who finished 54 not out and shared a 40-run partnership with Gary Cosier which put the Australian scoring rate ahead of England.
The pair took the score from 4-145 to 185 when Gary Cosier was out after they batted for 28 deliveries.
Gary Cosier scored his 28 off 14 deliveries and hit six over long-on off the bowling of John Lever.
John Lever was hit for another six several overs later by Trevor Laughlin. An assault on Lever's bowling in the last five overs was mainly responsible for Australia's win.
England mainly gathered their runs in the later stages of their innings after the early batsmen struggled to protect themselves and score runs on the dangerous wicket.
David Gower and Ian Botham shared a 64-run stand for the fifth wicket in better than even time that took England from 89-4 after opening batsman Geoff Boycott was out off the last delivery before lunch.
Australia struggled to score runs in the first overs, losing opening batsman Rick Darling with only seven runs scored to match the dismissal of Mike Brearley without a run scored in the England innings.
But Perer Toohey held the Australian innings together and with the big hitting by Gary Cosier and Trevor Laughlin they were able to win and ensure a third one-day game is played between the two sides on Wednesday.
England won the first clash by seven wickets about two weeks ago and Wednesday's game will decide the winner of the one-day series.
David Gower named Player of the match for his brilliant batting performance to scored a unbeaten 101-runs knocked off facing exact 100-balls including 9-fours.
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