Thirty five years have passed since Team India, against all the odds, clinched their maiden ICC Cricket World Cup and Kapil Dev became the first-ever Indian World Cup winning captain.
Watch the historic moment when Kapil Dev was handed the coveted trophy here:
The mega event was just two editions old and was won by the mighty West Indians both the times. The third edition, which still was played with 60 overs per side, – 1983 – once again saw the Windies making it to the final and this time they had India against them.
Prior to the 1983 World Cup, apparently popular cricket website, Wisden’s editor David Frith apparently writing off India brutally, said, “Show me a person who gave Kapil Dev's team any chance of winning the 1983 World Cup and I will show you a liar and an opportunist.”
He would have celebrated a bit for predicting to the point when the Indian team, batting first, was bowled out for a mere total of 183 in 54.4 overs on June 25, 1983.
Indian opener Kris Srikkanth top-scored for India with 38 runs in 57 balls and his knock included a six and seven fours. The next batsman was Mohinder Amarnath with 26 runs in 80 balls. Out of the 11 batsmen, only three Indians scored 20 or more runs.
When West Indies came out to bat, a lot of Indian fans back at home, reported had switched off their televisions.
With just five runs on the board, West Indies lost their first wicket. Indian medium pacer, Balwinder Sandhu, struck at West Indian opener, Gordon Greenidge’s off-stump. Bringing back Windies’ chase on the track, Viv Richards and other opener Desmond Haynes, shared a 40-plus stand before the latter was dismissed and West Indies went down 50 for 2.
Seven runs later, the defending champions lost Richards, who top-scored for them with 33 runs, as well. From there on, they kept losing wickets on regular intervals and in the span of next 83 runs, the reigning side were conquered and in style.
Indian pace duo of Amarnath and Madal Lal bagged three wickets each, while Sandhu had two, one to Roger Binny and Indian skipper Kapil Dev also one wicket to his name as they ended West Indies’ innings with eight overs to spare.
