40 yrs of the 1983 World Cup: Revisit two moments in the final that changed it all

Vivian Richards c Kapil Dev b Madan Lal 33.

These scorecard entries instantly transport generations of Indian cricket fans back in time to June 25, 1983. To a time when one-day cricket was 60 overs per side. A time when one-day cricket was played with a red ball and in white flannels. To a time when India was subordinate to England and Australia in the running of the game.

Much of this changed due to the proceedings at Lord’s Cricket Ground on that surreal London evening four decades ago as India stunned two-time champions West Indies in a David vs Goliath contest to win the 1983 World Cup. It was a fairytale made possible by two moments of magic etched in our minds as if they happened yesterday. Moments that have been watched over and over again for the past four decades.

Let’s start with Balwinder Singh Sandhu’s dismissal of Gordon Greenidge. Because that’s what set it all off. India did bat first after being sent in by West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, but by the time their innings ended, bleak hopes of victory had turned bleaker with a mere 183 on the board.

That’s when Sandhu offered India a glimmer of hope by making that first breakthrough early in the West Indian run chase. Ambling in gently to the crease, Sandhu, a 26-year-old medium-pacer donning a red turban, unleashed a peach of an inswinger that nipped back sharply to leave Greenidge flummoxed. The opener shouldered arms only to see the ball crash into the top of his off-stump. Sandhu calls it “the ball of hope”.

It was the ball that fuelled India’s self-belief, fully deserving of its immortality in the annals of Indian cricket. Forty years on, Sandhu’s memory of it remains razor-sharp.

Sandhu’s decision to bowl the inswinger to Greenidge first up may have been prompted by their history against each other. Three months before that final, Sandhu uprooted Greenidge’s stumps with an inswinger during a Test at Port of Spain in Trinidad. And did it again in India’s opening game of the World Cup against West Indies at Old Trafford.

“I had got him out with inswingers earlier. He was not picking them when I was coming close to the stumps. I had bowled a similar ball in a Test in Trinidad. That time, he had tried to punch the ball off the back foot but missed it,” says Sandhu.

Greenidge was out alright, but the fall of the first West Indies wicket tended to evoke fear rather than relief back then. For out walked Viv Richards in his pomp, chewing gum and twirling the bat. Not one to mess around on big occasions – he had smashed an unbeaten 138 in the final against England four years before that – Richards seemed eager to quickly knock off the remaining runs before heading back into the Lord’s pavilion to uncork bottles of champagne.

Having motored along to 33 with seven fours, he was intending to hit his eighth when he pulled a seemingly innocuous long hop by Madan Lal over midwicket. A split-second later, as the ball soared skywards and Kapil Dev began running back from midwicket, it was apparent that Richards had only managed a top edge.

The ball seemed to be in the air for an eternity, with an entire nation waiting anxiously in hope. Kapil, grace and athleticism personified on the turf, had his eyes fixed on the ball all along even as the television camera lost track of it momentarily, neither distracted by the importance of the moment nor by Yashpal Sharma running in from deep backward square leg in his peripheral vision. By the time the ball began to descend, Kapil had covered the distance swiftly enough to balance himself a few yards from the boundary and safely complete a remarkable catch.

Richie Benaud’s voice on commentary is instructive of the sequence of events. “Shot!” he begins before revising his assessment. “Not so good…beautifully caught.”

Multiple heroes have emerged and multiple victories have been registered in the four decades that have passed. But these moments of magic from 1983, alongside Kapil’s 175 against Zimbabwe, Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil’s riveting partnership in the semi-final against England, and Mohinder Amarnath’s all-round show in the final, will be remembered and revered even four decades later.