June 25 was a day when Indians set Lord’s on fire
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Indians will never forget the golden memories of June, 25, 1983. On this date India won its first world cricket cup. Kapil Dev famously became the first Indian captain to lift the Cricket World Cup on the 25 June 1983.
The 1983 Cricket World Cup (officially the Prudential Cup ’83) was the 3rd edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament. It was held from 9 to 25 June 1983 in England and Wales and was won by India. Eight countries participated in the event. The 1983 World Cup was full of dramatic cricket all through the tournament. Teams like India and Zimbabwe who were not playing well during those times scored victories over the West Indies and Australia respectively. England, Pakistan, India and tournament favourites West Indies qualified for the semi-finals. The preliminary matches were played in two groups of four teams each, and each country played the others in its group twice. The top two teams in each group qualified for the semi-finals.
India captain Kapil Dev re-wrote the history books with his remarkable innings of 175 not out against Zimbabwe.Not only was it the highest World Cup score at the time, it was also a record score in one-day international cricket. He came when India were 9 for 4 and that quickly became 17/5, but Dev provided a one-man resistance with 175 not out from 138 balls, including 16 fours and six sixes.
In the final, batting first, India were bowled out for 183 in 54.5 overs, as the matches consisted of 60 overs per innings and were played in traditional white clothing and with red balls. They were all played during the day. India’s opening batsman Kris Srikkanth was the top-scorer, with 38.
Considering the talent in the Windies’ ranks, the total looked fairly chaseable, however, fine bowling from India’s attack helped skittle their opponents for just 140.
Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal were the stars with the ball, taking three wickets apiece as India recorded a historic 43-run victory.
Indian medium-pacer Roger Binny proved his worth in English conditions as he finished the 1983 World Cup as leading wicket-taker, with 18 wickets, including a four-wicket haul against Australia.
June,25,2020
