New Delhi: The Indian team that lifted the 1983 World Cup, the country’s first major cricket title triumph at the global level, gathered at an event in Gurgaon for the launch of a book on the campaign on its 38th anniversary.
“We have all gathered here in Gurgaon at an event,” said Madan Lal, a member of the team that lifted the ODI World Cup on June 25, 38 years to this day.
India were underdogs in the final against the Clive Lloyd-led the West Indies side, which was looking to win its third consecutive World Cup following wins in the 1975 and 1979 editions.
Kapil Dev’s India had beaten the Windies in a league phase match before the men from the Caribbean bounced back to avenge the 34-run loss with a 66-run win.
The final was expected to be a cakewalk for the West Indies after India were all out for 183 in 60 overs. India were coasting along at 59 for one at one stage with Kris Srikkanth (38) and Mohinder Amarnath (26) at the crease but then the innings fell apart. At 111 for six, it looked India will struggle to make even 150. But runs at the back-end from Nos 9 (Lal, 17), 10 (Syed Kirmani, 14) and 11 (Balwinder Sandhu, 11) took them to their eventual score which still looked insufficient.
However, India’s battery of all-rounders won the day for them. Both Amarnath and Madan Lal took three wickets each while Roger Binny took one wicket.
At 50 for one, West Indies were coasting along. But Lal took a couple of wickets, including that of Viv Richards, caught brilliantly by skipper Dev who ran a long distance for it. The double whammy set WI back and they could never recover from there.
The Windies folded up for 140, well short of the Indian target.
The win brought a revolution in Indian cricket. India co-hosted the event four years later, making it to the semi-finals and after that Indian cricket never remained the same.
