On June 25th 1983, Indian cricket was changed altogether. Against all odds, an underdog side led by a 24-year-old Kapil Dev stunned the mighty West Indies, who had been dominating the competitions in the previous editions (1975 and 1979). India winning the World Cup was more than silverware; it transformed the sport into a religion in India.
India had entered these competitions as complete underdogs, as in both the previous editions, they had only managed 1 win. With only a few fans backing them, as teams like the West Indies, Australia and England were there. With grit and determination, India started to win.
According to me, what managed to reel in support and morale for the team was in a group stage match against Zimbabwe when India were getting thrashed at 17/5 when their captain came and hit an unbeaten 175, which is till date is regarded as one of the best ODI innings. Unfortunately, due to a BBC strike, there’s no footage of it. Not to forget, this entire campaign was a team effort with Roger Binny being the highest wicket taker or Yashpal Sharma’s all-round performance and players like Madan Lal stepping up when it mattered the most, this team functioned like a well-oiled machine.
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In the final, India lost Gavaskar too early, but Srikanth and Amarnath stabilised the innings, scoring 36 (57) and 26 (80) respectively. After their wickets, no one seemed to stay for long, and India posted 183 as their final total. In everyone’s eyes, this total was far too less for the mighty West Indies. To everyone’s shock, Gordon Greenidge was also dismissed very early, but the match seemed to be slipping away with Viv Richards smacking boundary after boundary, but our captain did a stellar job to take a running catch to dismiss the big man.
The score was 57/3; the following batsmen, like Lloyd and Gomes, were also dismissed cheaply for the scores of 8 and 5. All the batsmen to come could only manage runs in the single digits, except for Marshall and Dujon scoring 18 and 25 respectively, but both were dismissed by Amarnath, who picked up 3 wickets and was named Man of the match. The match was over with the West Indies only managing to make 140, giving true meaning to the famous quote “The bigger they are the harder they fall.”
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This win not only won a trophy it also ignited a cricket revolution in India. Teenagers throughout the country, including a teenager named Sachin Tendulkar, were inspired. The 1983 victory birthed a new generation of belief.
Now, the 1983 World Cup side is remembered as legends, not for their statistics, but for redefining what was achievable.
