1983 World Cup is a watershed moment in India cricket history as it revolutionised the game in the country thanks to Kapil Dev’s men bringing home the silverware for the first time in their history. It’s not a secret that India were the underdogs in the competition and there were little expectations of them.
However, in their opening match only, India managed to stun the cricket fraternity as they announced their claim in style.
Playing their first match of the 1983 World Cup, India got off to an inspirational start as they defeated the mighty two-time defending champions West Indies by 34 runs. The highly-anticipated encounter commenced with the West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd winning the toss and inviting India to bat first.
West Indies bowlers largely dominated the contest as they kept the opposition in control by keeping a check on the flow of the runs and taking timely wickets.
However, a sublime knock by Yashpal Sharma changed things for the good for India. Yashpal smashed brilliant 89 runs with the help of nine boundaries in a pressure situation. Thus, India managed to post a decent total of 262 runs on the scoreboard while losing eight wickets.
Chasing 263, West Indies were off to a decent start as Sir Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes stitched a 49-run partnership. However, seamer Roger Binny and spinner Ravi Shastri ran through’s the Caribbean’s batting order.
Both Binny and Shastri picked three wickets each. They were well supported by Balwinder Sandhu and Madan Lal who claimed one scalp each.
No batter from the West Indies team could score even 40 runs with Joel Garner and Andy Roberts were the joint-highest run-getter for the Indies with 37 runs each.
The two teams would clash again with West Indies balancing the ledger with a big 66-run win. However, as it turned out, the two teams also met in the summit clash with India scripting history by becoming the champions.
Get all the IPL news and Cricket Score here