India are the lords of the ring - 1983

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The placid contours that had marked the first two World Cup competitions were disturbed quite markedly in the third edition in 1983. The competition, held in England for the third successive time, started with a couple of upset results and ended in the biggest shock of all. At the end of it, West Indies had been dethroned from their pedestal and surprisingly, the new champions were not Australia or England but India who had been ranked 66 to one outsiders on the eve of the tournament.

The format was once again the same as the eight teams were placed in two groups. While group A comprised England, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, group B comprised West Indies, Australia, India and Zimbabwe. By now Sri Lanka had joined the ranks of Test nations and Zimbabwe were the only associate member to make the grade. But one important change in the format was that each team would be playing each other at the preliminary stage twice. This made each group quite competitive and had an impact on the surprising results.

The opening round itself was marked by two surprising results with Zimbabwe defeating Australia and India upsetting the West Indies.

Zimbabwe's defeat of Australia was easily the biggest upset result in the history of the World Cup. The African nation had been listed as 1000 to one outsiders to win the competition but with a highly professional performance they won by 13 runs. The batsmen played Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Rodney Hogg and Geoff Lawson with more than a degree of confidence while the bowlers were able to restrict Kepler Wessels, Graeme Wood, Kim Hughes, Allan Border, Graham Yallop, David Hookes and Rodney Marsh.

India's victory over the West Indies was almost as big a shock. For starters, India had won just one of six matches in the two previous competitions. Secondly, West Indies had never previously been defeated in 1975 and 1979.

India had served notice that they might be coming to terms finally with the intricacies of the limited overs game by defeating West Indies at Berbice dur ing their tour to the Caribbean a few months earlier. But few expected a similar result in the World Cup where West Indies had reigned as undisputed champions.

The two matches set the tone for some more surprising results to follow and a few days later, Sri Lanka surprised hotly fancied New Zealand in a group match. But the tournament was not all about surprise results.West Indies won their next five matches to top the group. England likewise won five and lost only one in topping their pool comfortably. But there was a keen tussle for the second semifinalist spot from each group. Finally, India got the better of Australia in group A while New Zealand, under pressure because of their upset loss to Sri Lanka, were edged out by Pakistan in group B.

The semifinals pitted India against England and West Indies against Pakistan. Not unexpectedly, a second successive final between England and West Indies was freely predicted. But India upset the calculations even if Pakistan could not. It was an unexpected bonus for the sub-continent to produce two of the semifinalists and Kapil's Devils as they were now christened proceeded to make the pundits scratch their heads in disbelief.

The captain himself had played one of the great one-day knocks in the return game against Zimbabwe. Entering when the scoreboard read nine runs for the four wickets, Kapil first extricated his team from the dicey situation and then went on to launch into a furious counter attack that ultimately saw him get an unbeaten 175, the highest score in a one-day international with the help of 16 fours and six sixes. Inspired by their captain, the team members put up a splendid show.

India's advantage was that they had a number of utility players, so very essential in the limited overs game. Still it was predicted that a confident England side playing at home would get the better of India. England did start well with the 100 coming up for the loss of only two wickets but they then floundered against Mohinder Amarnath and Kirti Azad who bowled 24 overs between them for just 55 runs and three wickets. India never surrendered the initiative that they obtained with England being bowled out for 213. Sensible batting by every one of their main batsmen Sunil Gavaskar, K Srikkanth, Amarnath, Yashpal Sharma and Sandip Patil saw India home with six wickets and 5.2 overs to spare.

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India were now one steep step away from the summit. But they still had to get the better of the West Indies who in the other semifinal coasted to an eight-wicket victory over Pakistan. Despite the impressive showing by the Indians, the West Indies remained firm favourites on the eve of the title clash at Lord's on June 25. And a hat-trick of title triumphs was taken for granted when India were all out for 183. The feeling gained momentum when West Indies were 50 for one with the incomparable Vivian Richards in commanding form.

Then followed an amazing turn about. Within a few overs, West Indies had slumped to 76 for six and suddenly India were heading for an astonishing title triumph. Kapil took a fine catch to dismiss Richards, Madan Lal took three quick wickets and it was left to Jeff Dujon and the long tail to try and retrieve the situation. The wicket-keeper and Malcolm Marshall did give the rampaging Indians some anxious moments in putting together a 43- run seventh wicket partnership. But now Amarnath did the star turn. He broke the partnership by getting rid of Marshall and then took the last wicket to herald Indian cricket's greatest moment. West Indies were all out for 140 and the whole of India erupted in a riotous celebration. It was a well-deserved triumph, for after all India had beaten the West Indies not just once but twice and had also added England's scalp for good measure.

The Indians got six man of the match awards and these included two for Mohinder Amarnath for his all-round display in the semifinal and final, while Roger Binny, with 18 victims, emerged as the leading wicket-taker.