In the era of sheer dominance of West Indies in the cricketing fraternity, something out of expectation happened. The underdog Indian cricket team won the 1983 World Cup.
INTRODUCTION
Officially known as the Prudential Cup at that time was hosted by England and Wales.
The 3RD Edition of the World Cup was held from 9th June to 25th June 1983.
It saw eight participating nations and the previous two being won by the then giants; the West Indies.
This Edition saw a change in the trend as teams like India and Zimbabwe who were not that well, defeated West Indies and Australia.
FORMAT
The most awaited tournament for the cricket lovers was being played in the Double Round Robin (DRR) and then followed by knock-out format.
This means that each team in the group will play every other of the same group two times.
Then the top two teams of each group will qualify for the semifinals.
The topper of Group A will play the 2nd of Group B and vice versa for the other.
The matches at that time used to be of 60 over each inning.
The players were in traditional white clothing and the matches were played with red balls. Only day matches were played due to the red colored balls.
GROUP DIVISION
The eight teams which participated were divided into two groups respectively.
The eight teams consisted of 7 Full Members of the ICC which also included Sri Lanka which was recently added and Zimbabwe who did qualify for the World Cup by winning the 1982 ICC Trophy.
England, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in group A and West Indies, India, Australia and Zimbabwe in Group B.
Pakistan and England from Group A and India and West Indies from Group B respectively qualified for the Semis.
SEMI-FINAL 1 SCENARIO
In the first semifinal, the Indians were scheduled to face the British at the Old Trafford on 22 June 1983.
The British won the toss and elected to bat first.
As the match proceeded the Englishmen seemed too very unfordable with the restrictive Indian bowling attack.
They mistimed a lot and as well edged quite a few times.
By comprehensive bowling, the Indians were able to restrict the former Runner-ups for 213-10 in 60 over.
Kapil Dev two wickets and both Roger Binny along with Mohinder Amarnath took three wickets each.
Riding upon two classic half-centuries from Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil India chased the target down with 5.2 overs (32 balls) remaining and won the match by six wickets.
SEMI-FINAL 2 SCENARIO
The second semifinal was staged at the oval on the same day where the defending Champions: West Indies were to take on Pakistan.
West Indies won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first.
As expected the West Indian bowlers ripped past the Pakistani batting line up and restricted them for a mere 184.
Malcolm Marshal and Andy Roberts stared the inning as both took two wickets each.
The West Indian inning revolved around the superb innings by Viv Richards and an unbeaten half-century from Larry Holmes as the defending champions chase the target with 6 wickets and about 11 overs in hand.
THE FINALE
Then the day had finally arrived where the underdog Indian team was to face the tournament favorites the West Indians.
On the 25th of June 1983 at the Lords India lost the toss and were asked to bat first.
The sheer pace from the Indies ripped through the Indian batting line up.
And India was bowled out for 183 after a little resistance from the lower order.
But what happened unexpectedly is that the Indian bowlers exploited the pitch and the overcast conditions to the best as possible.
By creating one of the worst upsets of cricketing history, riding on three wickets each of Amarnath and Madan Lal India bowled out West Indies for 140.
This is the time when the Indian team; the so-called underdogs made their mark in the cricketing fraternity.
The event of the 1983 World Cup has been the best of the time for the Indian cricketing arena.
Since then we have never seen the Indian team looking back.
This was the onset of the rise of the Indian team and the likes of Kapil Dev, Amarnath, Binny, Madan Lal, K. Srikant laying the foundation stone of the rise of the Indian team.
ALSO READ : https://www.crickacademy.com/marnus-labuschagne-biography/
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