On the 25th of July, 1983, cricket fans lay witness to a spectacle! In one of the most famous upsets in the cricketing world, an unfancied Indian side outclassed champions West Indies to create history by winning their first ever Cricket World Cup. Fuelled on by a charismatic captain and a billion yearning fans, the Indian team defeated the Windies by 43 runs to forever change the face of the global game.
After being asked to bat first, India lost their experienced opener Sunil Gavaskar early but Kris Srikkanth and Mohinder Amarnath steadied the ship, getting a fifty-run partnership. The opener from Tamil Nadu was the top scorer with 37, before he was sent packing by Malcolm Marshall. The middle-order though, stood up to the Windies pace battery as Sandeep Patil and Amarnath put on some valuable runs. They were well supported by the Indian bowlers who helped the batting side get to a respectable 183 runs, in order to give them an outside chance at victory.
The Indian seamers had to execute the perfect game plan with the ball to defeat a West Indies side which boasted star batsmen like Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards. The former threatened to take the game away with a quickfire 33, before a splendid catch by Kapil Dev spelt his end. Lloyd too was dismissed cheaply by Roger Binny, with Amarnath starring on the day with three wickets, which included getting Micheal Holding plump in front of the wicket as India scripted a famous win that has stood the test of time.
India’s triumph forever changed the gentleman’s game, with the West Indies’ aura of invincibility forever broken, giving belief to every other cricketing nation to go for the top prize in future competitions. The victory also helped popularize the gentleman’s game amongst a billion more patrons, with the South Asian countries becoming frontrunners of the sport. It helped make the game more global, with more television players investing into the cricket market, helping it gain the prominence it has today.
Featured image courtesy: BCCI Twitter (@bcci)
