Mumbai : England again hosted third edition of the cricket world cup. It was also called the Prudential Cup as Prudential insurance Limited sponsored this mega event as well. The tournament commenced from June 9 with the final being played on June 25.
Eight countries participated in the 1983 WC. They were divided into two pools Pool A consisted of England , Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka where as Pool B consisted of West Indies, Australia, India and debutants Zimbabwe.
The only difference was that each team clashed against each other in the Pools twice instead of once. With the top two teams of each pools qualifying for the semis.
Read 'King' Richards and Collis King made the difference
This World Cup was filled with upsets. Teams like India and Zimbabwe who were considered to be less than underdogs scored upset victories over the West Indies and Australia respectively in their opening game. The highlight of the group stage was a revolutionary innings of unbeaten 175 by the Indian captain Kapil Dev. At a time when India were struggling at 5/17 later 7/78 and again 8/140 Kapil not only held the fort intact but played a blazing innings of 175 off 138 balls with 16 hits to the fence and 6 over it. Without this innings of Indian Captain, it would have been impossible for India to beat Zimbabwe and a defeat in that match would have ended India's adventure in the group stage itself.
Kapil's 175* helped India enter the semis for the first time. The other teams to qualify for the last four were England, Pakistan, and the tournament favourites West Indies. Upsets continued in the semis as well with fancied England going down to India. West Indies trounced Pakistan in the other semi finals.
The major upset was however reserved for the Grand Finale. Clive Lloyd and his West Indian side were more than happy to face India in the championship match. The entire team was confident to complete a hat-trick of World Cup triumphs. But there they went wrong. Their confidence turned into over confidence. So much so, that after restricting India to a paltry 183, the entire star studded Windies bundled out for just 140 bringing the entire cricket world to a pin drop silence and the commencement of a golden chapter in Indian history.
The only tragedy for India in this tournament was that nobody could watch the historic match winning innings of 175* by Kapil Dev. This was basically due to two reasons. First , the BBC was on a one day strike and the second being people were least interested about an India vs Zimbabwe match.
Not only that innings of 175* , Kapil took one of the stunning catch in the games' history to get rid of Vivian Richards who was looking dangerous in the Grand Finale. West Indies vice captain scored 33 of 28 deliveries with 7 hits to the fence.
Most Runs Scored (by an individual) :
David Gower of England with 384 runs
Most wickets taken (by an individual) :
Roger Michael Humphrey Binny of India with 18 wickets
Highest total (by a team) :
Pakistan 338 losing 5 wickets against Sri Lanka in the group stages
Lowest total (by a team) :
Australia 129 all out vs India in the group stages
Match of the tournament :
- India vs Zimbabwe (in the group stages) : India, batting first, were 4/9 . In came Kapil Dev , who told his teammates "the match hasn't over yet", and produced an innings that changed the complexion of the tournament. He remained unbeaten on 175 whilch propelled the team reach 266 , a defendable total. The team bundled out Zimbabweans for 235 to register a miraculous win.
- India vs West indies (Grand Finale) : After being put into bat, India skittled out for a modest 183. Fans had little doubts the match will be a cakewalk for the mighty Windies. Just before coming out to defend that small total, Kapsy said, "Team, if this is not a winning total its definitely a fighting total". One of the famous cricket quotes. West Indies chasing, were 1/50, fans have given up any hopes that existed. Kapil then proved what he said to his teammates by taking a excellent running catch to get rid of dangerous Viv Richards. This proved to be the turning point of the match.
- Zimbabwe vs Australia (Group Stages) : Debutants Zimbabwe successfully defended their paltry total of 239 by restricting Australia to just 226 to register an upset win.
Squads :
- Australia : Kim Hughes (c) , Allan Border, Trevor Chappell, Tom Hogan, Rodney Hogg, David Hookes, Geoff Lawson, Dennis Lillee, Ken MacLeay, Rod Marsh(wk), Jeff Thomson, Kepler Wessels, Graeme Wood and Graham Yallop
- England : Bob Willis (c), Paul Allott, Ian Botham, Norman Cowans, Graham Dilley, Graeme Fowler, Mike Gatting, Ian Gould, David Gower, Trevor Jesty, Allan Lamb, Vic Marks, Derek Randall and Chris Tavaré
- India : Kapil Dev(c), Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Roger Binny, Sunil Gavaskar, Syed Kirmani (wk), Madan Lal, Sandeep Patil, Balwinder Sandhu, Yashpal Sharma, Ravi Shastri, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Sunil Valson and Dilip Vengsarkar
- New Zealand : Geoff Howarth (c), John Bracewell, Lance Cairns, Ewen Chatfield, Jeremy Coney, Jeff Crowe, Martin Crowe, Bruce Edgar, Richard Hadlee, Warren Lees(wk), Ian Smith (wk), Martin Snedden, Glenn Turner and John WrightTeams participated in World Cup 1983
- Pakistan : Imran Khan (c), Abdul Qadir, Ijaz Faqih, Mansoor Akhtar, Mohsin Khan, Mudassar Nazar, Rashid Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Shahid Mahboob, Tahir Naqqash, Wasim Bari (wk), Wasim Raja, Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad
- Sri Lanka : Duleep Mendis (c), Guy de Alwis (wk), Ashantha de Mel, Somachandra de Silva, Roy Dias, Vinothen John, Brendon Kuruppu, Ranjan Madugalle, Arjuna Ranatunga, Rumesh Ratnayake, Athula Samarasekera and Sidath Wettimuny
- West Indies : Clive Lloyd (c), Faoud Bacchus, Wayne Daniel, Winston Davis, Jeff Dujon (wk), Joel Garner, Larry Gomes, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Michael Holding, Gus Logie, Malcolm Marshall, Viv Richards and Andy Roberts
- Zimbabwe : Duncan Fletcher (c), Robin Brown, Iain Butchart, Kevin Curran, Jack Heron, Graeme Hick, Vince Hogg, David Houghton (wk), Grant Paterson, Gerald Peckover, Andrew Pycroft, Peter Rawson, Ali Shah and John Traicos
