New Delhi: 1983 Prudential World Cup was the tournament by which India announced itself on the big stage defeating the giants like West Indies, Australia and England. India won the world cup finals by defeating West Indies by 43 runs on June 25, 1983. An underdog team led by Kapil Dev saw a lot of ups and down through the tournament, but eventually came out victorious.
Ups and downs for the underdogs
Before reaching the finals, the Indian side had already won everyone’s hearts. India started their campaign with a win against the defending champions West Indies, Yashpal Sharma scored a brilliant 89(120) and Roger Binny and Ravi Shastri took 3 wickets each. Then after facing two defeats against Australia and West Indies, India was facing Zimbabwe for the second time. India lost 4 wickets for just 9 runs and then walked in the Indian captain. Kapil Dev played a magical inning of 175*(138), which was never recorded on camera as BBC reporters were on strike that day. In the semi-finals India faced England, and it was a collective team effort where everyone contributed to the win.
The final challenge
Now, India was in the finals facing the mighty West Indies. The Windies won the toss and chose to field first. Their decision proved to be the right one as Sunil Gavaskar was dismissed for 2(12). Kris Srikanth and Mohinder Amarnath provided Indian innings with a balance, but soon after their dismissal India again started losing quick wickets. The Indian team ended up scoring 183 as Sir Andy Roberts took 3 wickets.
India now had to bowl tight as chasing 183 in 60 overs was not a tough task for a batting line-up that had the likes of Gordon Greenidge, Sir Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd. India started well as Balwinder Sandhu dismissed Greenidge for 1(12) and the Windies were at 5 for 1. Then came the star batter Viv Richards. Richards with Haynes made a partnership of 45 runs and India needed a breakthrough. Kapil Dev handed the ball to Madan Lal who not only broke the partnership by dismissing Haynes, but he also got Richards out soon. Cricket fans can never forget the catch that Kapil Dev took to dismiss Richards.
After losing 5 wickets for just 26 runs West Indies’ score stood at 76 for 6. The wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon tried to stabilise but after his wicket, the Windies could not recover.
Mohinder Amarnath took the last wicket to dismiss the opponents for 140 and the fans came running to the ground. At the second edition of the Prudential World Cup, India lifted their first one. A win which not only marled India’s position on the international stage but also inspired many Indian like Sachin Tendulkar to pick cricket as their career.
