Ravi Shastri's magnum opus
Ravi Shastri captured the imagination of millions of Indian fans when he turned in a performance befitting a Champion, to steer India to victory in the World Championship of Cricket in 1985
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
Ravi Shastri captured the imagination of millions of Indian fans when he turned in a performance befitting a Champion, to steer India to victory in the World Championship of Cricket in 1985. 25 years later, he relived the moment in an interview with Clayton Murzello from Mid Day.
Despite India's fine win in the opener over Pakistan at Melbourne, England had good reason to fancy their chances against the Indians considering their recent success. But for them to say that their spin attack was superior to India's proved too hard to swallow for Shastri, who remembers reading a passage from the match preview which said, "Our spinners better than India and we should put it across."
Shastri decided to wake up his roommate and fellow spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. "I read that and threw the paper at Siva and woke him up literally to the extent of saying, 'Get up and read it. By 11 that night it was history." He ended up getting an inauspicious 13, but claimed three wickets to send England packing to an 86-run defeat.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo