130 Kapil Dev’s and his team’s victory in the 1983 World Cup was an important milestone in the sporting history of Maharashtra, a country of over a million people. It is with that universal success that cricket is rooted in India.
With a win in the two previous World Cups and a total of 40 ODIs in total, no one expected a team like England, the West Indies and England to return with the trophy. That is why the words of former Australian captain Kim Hughes, ‘This team will be the black horses of the World Cup’, were laughed at by even the most ardent Indian cricket fans at the time.
But with the opening match of that World Cup, India shocked the cricketing world as a whole. Kapil and his team started by defeating the then irreplaceable West Indies by 34 runs in the first match of the World Cup. Today marks the 39th anniversary of the Indian coup at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester on June 10, 1983.
West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, who won the toss, did not have to think twice before sending India to bat first. Lloyd thought it would be impossible for Indian batsmen to hold their own against a strong Windies pace line-up of Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall at a venue like Manchester. Yashpal Sharma, who was fifth in the starting line – up, helped India reach 262 for eight in 60 overs. The small contributions of Mohinder Amarnath (21), Sandeep Patil (36), Roger Binny (27) and Madan Lal (21) also helped India.
The batting world, including Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Vivian Richards, thought the 263-run target would be easily surpassed. Most newspapers did this until the Windies started lining up in anticipation of the victory. When Greenidge and Haynes added 49 runs for the opening wicket, the faces of Indian fans in the gallery began to fade. But with Haynes’ run-out, the course of the game began to change. Balwinder Sandhu then put Greenidge ahead as he added seven runs. With this, the Indian bowlers were able to persuade Richards to leave his regular attacking nature and play defensively. Roger Binny gave the team confidence by returning Richards, who scored just 17 off 36 balls. Later, Binny and Ravi Shastri bowled well and the Windies started losing wickets at regular intervals.
With the Windies’ ninth wicket falling for 157, Indian fans in the gallery and other players in the dressing room began to celebrate. The Windies’ last wicket partnership was not ready to give up the match. Joining hands with Joel Garner XI, Andy Roberts began to erase the long-standing smile on the faces of Indian fans. After 200 runs, India were on the defensive as the Windies’ score soared. Kapil, Sandhu, Madan Lal, Binny and Sandeep Patil took turns to bowl but to no avail. Ravi Shastri smashed the first ball of the 55th over to give India a 71-run lead. India won the toss and elected to field. Binny and Shastri took three wickets apiece. Andy Roberts (37 *) stood as if India were still refusing to concede defeat at the crease when the victory celebrations began.
The confidence that this coup victory gave India was not small. Finally, on June 25, 1983, at Lord’s World Cup finals at Lord’s, Kapil and his team of devils returned from English soil, defeating the same Windies again.