Remembering World Cup 1983

The cricket world cup of 1983 was a significant one. They marked a significant shift in cricket's balance of power from England to India. It signified an end of an era for West Indies dominance. It had its share of interesting trivia. , Zimbabwe sold cakes and worked as bouncers to make it to the World Cup. Then they shocked Australia in their first game.

 It was most memorable world cup for our Indian team. 25^th June 1983 was the day Indian cricket team created history. Kapil’s Devil beat the world champions West Indies at Lords. Although Dhoni’s team recreated history in Mumbai, 2011, First world cup victory of 1983 can never be erased from history. First victory will always remain special, just like first love I guess.

 In 1983 world cup 8 teams were participated and total 27 matches were played between these teams. Like all other previous version of World Cup this world cup also played in Group stage and knock out stage.

Group A: England, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka

Group B:West Indies, India, Australia, Zimbabwe

Indian team was quoted 66:1 by bookies before the battle began. A few Zimbabwe hiccups, some Australia demolition and loads of upsets including group win over windies & India had made it to the semi-final.

On 22th June 1983 India faced England in the first semi-final and defeat England by 6 wicket and on the same day in other Semi-Final West Indies defeated Pakistan by 8 Wickets.

On 25th June 1983, not even 20% of Indians were aware of this event taking place as Lords in England got jam-packed for the final showdown. A total of 232,081 fans strolled in, nearly equalling the combined total of past two finals (160,000 for 1975 & 132,000 for 1979).

In the final, on 25th June 1983 India lost the toss and were asked to bat first against a West Indies team that arguably boasted the world's best bowling attack. India Score 183 runs in just 54.4 overs. Only Kris Srikanth (38 from 57 balls) and Mohinder Amarnath (26 from 80 balls) put some significant resistance against West Indies. The likes of Roberts, Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding ripped through the Indian bating line-up. Only three sixes were hit in the Indian innings, one from Srikanth, one from Sandeep Patil (27 from 29 balls), and one from Madan Lal (17 from 27 balls).

Banana Swing from captain Kapil Dev started second session of 1983 world cup finals. Sandhu took new ball from other end, and foxed Gorden Greenidge with an inswinger. Larry Gomes, Desmond Haynes were followed by Vivian Richards - who wanted to finish the match early. Soon the West Indian batsmen collapsed and ultimately fell short of the target by 43 runs. The Indian spirit was epitomized by an astonishing catch by Kapil Dev who sprinted back 20 yards to latch onto the skier from the marauding blade of the great Viv Richards.

 

As the last West Indian wicket fell in the 1983 Cricket World Cup final, Indian fans present in the ground got crazy and came in the ground to touch their heroes. 

Amarnath was the most economical bowler, conceding just 12 runs from his seven over’s while taking 3 wickets, and was once again awarded the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance.

As the news filtered through to the fans back home, it led to unprecedented scenes of jubilation throughout Delhi and Calcutta and the rest of the country. The 1983 Cricket World Cup was India’s World Cup. Despite their bad performance in first two world cup India emerged as the new cricketing power of the world. They surprise the world and defeated West Indies in Final.