India's first World Cup triumph in 1983 was special. It was more remarkable considering India ended the dominance of the great West Indies, who had made the first two world tournaments their own.?
India's victorious campaign in England wouldn't have been possible had Kapil Dev not rescued his side from the jaws of defeat in their fifth match of the 60-over showpiece event.
Batting first India were struggling at 17 for 5 when Kapil came in to bat and smashed a 138-ball 175 while batting with the tail-enders to take the score to 266 for 8 in 60 overs.
?India had gone to the third edition of the cricket World Cup as underdogs given the fact that they had just one win to show from the previous two editions. And though they had started the tournament with victories over West Indies and Zimbabwe, the eventual champions still needed to beat Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells on June 18, 1983, to keep alive their semi-final hopes.??
It all started horribly and it looked curtains, India started falling like nine pins and half the team was back in the hurt with just 17 on the board.?Kapil Dev walked in to bat soon after the fall of Sandeep Patil’s wicket and even before he could settle down, Peter Rawson dismissed Yashpal Sharma.?
They needed something truly special and captain Kapil provided just that.?He added 62 runs for the eighth wicket with Madan Lal (17) and anyone watching him bat in the middle could tell that the Indian captain was in a different zone on that day.
Wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani played a very important supporting role from thereon as he kept rotating the strike in an unbeaten ninth-wicket partnership of 126 runs to take India to a respectable 266 for eight.
Zimbabwe in reply, were bowled out for 235 with Madan Lal (3/42), Roger Binny (2/45) and Kapil (1/32) starring with the ball.??