Kapil Dev gets Viv Richards at the 1983 World Cup final

In 1983, West Indies were unbeatable. They possessed the most fearsome bowling attack and possibly the most brutal batting line-up that anybody had ever witnessed. The first two World Cups had been demonstrations of Caribbean brilliance. The 1979 victory - a strutting, muscular annihilation of England - established Clive Lloyd's team as the kings of cricket.

The 1983 World Cup was following a predictable script. West Indies stormed to the final, and only Kapil Dev's Indian team provided a romantic antidote to their muscle, with a silky middle order and an arsenal of friendly medium-pacers.

India's arrival in the final was fun but never a threat. Indeed, once Messrs Marshall, Garner, Holding, and Roberts had despatched India for 183, the only disappointment was that Viv Richards would be denied a second successive World Cup final century.

As if mindful of that predicament, Richards set off like a train - a nuclear-powered one - and India's powder-puff attack was just that.

But then something peculiar happened. Madan Lal, about whom it was joked that Richards had time to play two strokes by the time the ball reached him, bowled one slightly short around the off stump and Richards set himself to deposit the ball into the stands behind midwicket. He played a touch early and only top-edged it. The ball went miles up in the air, and when Kapil Dev, who was fielding at mid-on, began to run towards it, all of India waited. Few gave him a chance though. But Kapil glided on, head turned over his right shoulder, eyes fixed on the ball, taking the catch comfortably in the end, both hands cupping the ball. It was a perfect exhibition of graceful athleticism, belief, and coolness under pressure.

Time stopped in complete disbelief; the King had fallen. Some observers swore that Kapil smiled as he prepared for the plummeting cricket ball of history. It gave India belief. And West Indies panicked. Larry Gomes, usually a man for crises, edged Madan Lal to slip. The next big wicket was Clive Lloyd, who drove airily to mid-on. Jeff Dujon and Malcolm Marshall put on a fight, but Mohinder Amarnath winkled them out with his dibbly dobblies, and in no time, the greatest upset in the history of the World Cup had happened. In hindsight it can also be said that the catch changed the way cricket would be played, for it awoke India to the possibilities of the one-day game.

The Caribbean empire had fallen, and an Asian giant was awake.