Revision as of 23:00, 12 February 2015

1983

Prudential Cup: venue England

Participating teams: All seven test playing teams (now including Sri Lanka), plus Zimbabwe (selected through the ICC Trophy)

Winners: India, who defeated West Indies in the finals.

India beat Australia to reach '83 semis

gocricket.com 20 Jun 2014

At Chelmsford, Roger Binny's indefatigable spirit was on display in a famous Indian win.

India beat Australia in their final league match of the 1983 World Cup at Chelmsford. It was a do-or-die fixture, and Kapil Dev's team beat the odds to make it to their first World Cup semi-final.

Here's how it panned out:

This was an epic match in the context of India's World Cup dream. Had they lost to Australia here, they would have been ousted on the basis of Australia's better head-to-head record, and so the match at Chelmsford was one of life and death.

Coming to this match, Australia weren't in the best of shape, with their bowling especially suspect, but on this day, they managed to bowl India out for 247 in 55.5 overs. From a poor start (3 for 1), Australia were looking good on 46 for 1 when Roger Binny, in his most outstanding display of an outstanding World Cup, knocked the stuffing out of them.

In three overs, the 16th, the 17th and the 20th, Binny reduced the Aussies to 52 for 4, and the game was over as a contest. Bowling seam-up and hitting all the right places, Binny confounded the opposition with just the right pace on that wicket, and claimed match-winning figures of 8-2-29-4. In many ways, Binny was the epitome of India's spirit that summer, and it was here, at Chelmsford, that his indefatigable spirit was on display.

A triumph that changed India

1983 changed Indian cricket, its cricketers and the country forever

Rajdeep Sardesai India Today, February 5, 2015 |

Quite remarkably, India beat England in the semi-final at Old Trafford and suddenly the English seemed to lose interest in the sport.

The West Indians were a mighty side, arguably the greatest of all time. Any side blessed with the majesty of Richards, the power of Greenidge and Lloyd, the artistry of Dujon, and, above all, the sheer pace of the most fearsome attack in cricket history (all four of them!) was simply invincible. Or so most Indians thought. We were going to be runners-up.

In fact, when India was bowled out for just 183, one of its supporters, former Test player Yajurvindra Singh, decided to go off shopping. His brother was to arrive that evening and Singh, a record-holder for most catches in a Test innings, decided it was best to leave before the final act of what seemed a formality. It was perhaps the worst decision he has ever made in his life!

India-50 to one outsiders at the start of the tournament, a team whose previous World Cup record included wins against lowly East Africa and not much else-achieved the seemingly impossible. Kapil Dev lifted the cup that evening, the West Indies were shell-shocked.

Each little shot and wicket only added to the drama. Srikkanth, wielding his bat like a sword, actually hooking a six off Andy Roberts; Sandeep Patil lofting Larry Gomes into a stand where we were surrounded by beer-swigging West Indian supporters; Syed Kirmani diving full length to take a catch; above all, Kapil Dev running like he was at the Haryana marathon and then bursting into the widest smile imaginable after dismissing Sir Viv, who was batting with an imperious air, almost as if he owned the ground and the Cup.

The special moment was when Balwinder Sandhu, a genial sardar, bowled the other great West Indian batsman, Greenidge, while he shouldered arms and left the ball. 'Balloo', as he was fondly referred to, was on the biggest stage of them all, bamboozling one of the finest players of fast bowling. If Sandhu could make the West Indians dance to his swing, then India should have known this was to be an exceptional day.

The 1983 win changed the commercial worth of the Indian cricketer forever. Until then, cricketers rarely did advertisements: a Farokh Engineer in a Brylcreem ad in the 1960s had been an exception.

Yes, Sunil Gavaskar in the 1970s had acquired superstar status but his was the achievement of a middle-class hero: an old-style Test batsman who had defied the fastest bowlers in the world. Gavaskar's world, much like the India of the times, was not one of extravagance or self-indulgence; he was the classicist.

If you ever went to a movie theatre in the 1980s, you couldn't miss Kapil Dev. With his toothy smile and wide moustache, he invited you into a new world that said, quite simply, 'Palmolive da jawaab nahi'. If Gavaskar was the legend, Dev became a pop icon for a young India: suddenly, in the land of spinners, everyone wanted to bowl fast and hit sixes.

1983: Gavaskar, brought luck, not runs

Adapted from

Abhijeet Srivastava |Aaj Tak | New Delhi, January 16, 2015

Kapil scored the most runs in the tournament

Kapil Dev led the Indian team that won the World Cup for the first time in 1983. Against Zimbabwe Kapil played an unbeaten innings of 175 runs. Mohinder Amarnath was the 'Man of the Match’ in the semi-final and final. But the one thing that very few people know is that the team won the World Cup because of Sunil Gavaskar.

Gavaskar had a very poor performance during the tournament. Yet he played for the Indian team in six of the eight matches. After the first two games he was removed from the playing XI. The team won the first two matches but Gavaskar’s performances were quite mediocre: 19 against the West Indies in the first game; and only four runs against Zimbabwe.

The management brought in Dilip Vengasakar in his place. But what happened after that compelled them to bring Gavaskar back to the playing eleven.

In the two matches played after removing Gavaskar, against Australia and the West Indies, India lost both, and by large margins. Gavaskar was recalled. This was the match in which half the team was all out for 17 runs but Kapil Dev scored a historic innings of 175 not out. Gavaskar scored zero runs, but when the team has managed to survive such a grave crisis it seemed to them that Gavaskar had brought luck to the team. He seemed to be a good luck charm in match after match after that. India was not only not eliminated from the tournament, the team did not lose a match after that.

Gavaskar’s own ‘good luck tactic’ during the tournament was to wear his left pad and left shoe first, while dressing for the match.

During the 1983 World Cup, in six matches Gavaskar scored only 59 with an average of just 9.83. His highest score was 25. However, these 25 runs came at the most opportune moment. These runs were scored in the semi-final. The team had to score 214 to win the match. Gavaskar and Srikanth scored 46 runs for the first wicket. This created a strong base for the innings and India reached the final by winning the game by six wickets.

Gavaskar helped the team win the World Cup not because of his performance but because he brought luck to the team.

Kapil Dev

Ayaz Memon India Today February 5, 2015 | World Cup highlights: When the greats got going

1983.

175 runs

138 balls.

4s-16

6s-6

There have been several bigger scores, even double hundreds in the past few years, but to my mind Kapil Dev's unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe in Tunbridge Wells remains unsurpassed in ODI cricket history.

On a seaming track, India were reeling at 9-4 when he walked out to bat. The score was soon 17-5. From there, to take the total to 266 in the company of tail-enders was an astounding feat.

Look at the hardship quotient for his innings. India faced not just a rout in the match, but also virtual elimination from the tournament. The pitch was heavily loaded in favour of the bowlers too-heavily grassed and a little damp, allowing for deadly seam movement. The manner in which Kapil Dev took these hardships in his stride belied belief. It was the unbridled expression of cricketing genius. Blessed with keen ball sense, nimble footwork and powerful arms, Kapil's counterattack left the Zimbabweans and spectators at the small ground dizzy.

The impact of his innings resonated loud and wide and changed the destiny of not only that match but the tournament as well as the future of the sport. Ironically, this knock was not recorded for posterity because official broadcaster BBC was on strike that day.

Fascinating facts about World Cups

Author: MS Ramakrishnan, Bangalore, Thu, Jan 22 2015 CricBuzz 1 <>CricBuzz 2 <>CricBuzz 3 <>CricBuzz 4 <>CricBuzz 5

1983: Kapil Dev's wife went for shopping thinking India would lose India were given nil chance of upstaging West Indies in the 1983 World Cup final, so much so that Kapil Dev's wife expected defeat and went shopping. Fortunes turned and how!

1983: A shocking revelation from Madan Lal "I was not supposed to bowl the over in which I dismissed Viv Richards," expressed Madan Lal, several years after the 1983 World Cup final. Perhaps, destiny wanted the underdogs to become top dogs.

1983: A World Cup without playing a single game Interestingly, left-arm pacer Sunil Valson became the first player to win a World Cup without even featuring in a single game. Valson was selected in the Indian squad for the 1983 World Cup, but he never got a game in the tournament. Ironically, he was never picked for India again.

See also

World Cup (cricket): history <>World Cup (cricket): 1975 <>World Cup (cricket): 1979 <>World Cup (cricket): 1983 <>World Cup (cricket): 1987 <>World Cup (cricket): 1992 <>World Cup (cricket): 1996 <>World Cup (cricket): 1999 <>World Cup (cricket): 2003 <>World Cup (cricket): 2007 <>World Cup (cricket): 2011 <>World Cup (cricket): 2015