Prudential World Cup 1983 : When Kapil’s Devils Stunned The World

Prudential World Cup 1983, too, featured eight teams with Zimbabwe making their debut in place of Canada. Group A featured England, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka whereas Australia, the West Indies,  India and Zimbabwe filled the slots for Group B. There was a change in the format as the four teams played each other twice with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals. The match length were 60 overs per side.

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Matches in Group A produced more or less the expected results whereas, there were shocking results in Group B outings. The first upset came when Zimbabwe beat Australia by 13 runs, courtesy, a fine 69 by Duncan Fletcher who later on took 4 wickets with the ball. Second upset came when India got the better of the defending champions West Indies. This was the first defeat of the West Indies in a World Cup. June 18 will be remembered for the greatest ODI knock till date when Kapil Dev struck 175 not out of 138 deliveries. Walking onto the 22 yards when India were reeling at 4/9 which later became 5/17, 6/77, 7/78 and 8/140 Kapil, not only kept one end intact but also kept the scoreboard moving. India finished at 8/266 and then bundled out Zimbabwe at 235.  The tragic part of the story is that the match couldn’t be viewed as few were interested in an India vs Zimbabwe affair and also the BBC was on an one day strike on that day.

So it happened that India were to take on England and it will be Pakistan vs West Indies in the semi finals. Few expected India to win the semi final encounter by a whirlwind knock by Sandeep Patil 51(32) and an all-round performance by Mohinder Amarnath 46(92) and 2/27 propelled the Indians into the finals. As expected West Indies got the better of Pakistan in the other semi final.

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Thus India took on the West Indies in the Grand Finale. Krishnamachari Srikkanth 38(57) guided India to a total of 183. In the lunch time Kapil Dev told his boys to just go out and enjoy as they have nothing to lose, Kapil’s Devils did just that and bowled out the mighty West Indies for a paltry 140 and thus winning the match and the world championship by 43 runs. Mohinder Amarnath 26(80) and 3/12 produced another all round performance. Kapil Dev took a stunning catch to get rid of Vivian Richards 33(28) which was the turning point of the match. This is the most shocking result that changed the complexion of world cricket.