It was the final of the 1983 World Cup. Despite the early hiccup at the hands of the Indian team, the two-time defending champions, West Indies had strolled into the final. On the other hand, India had beaten West Indies and Australia and then lost to both the sides but their wins over Zimbabwe as compared to Australia’s loss to Zimbabwe in one of the games meant that they were through to the semi-final.
In the semi-final, India had crushed the English side with consummate ease and enter the final. However, against West Indies, it was always going to be a difficult task and it was widely believed that the Indians had done their bit and would be taught a lesson.
On a seaming Lord’s track, the West Indies won the toss and decided to bowl first. Even before the early entrants could catch their seats in the stadium, the side lost Sunil Gavaskar for two. However, the second wicket stand between the usually aggressive Krish Srikkanth and Mohinder Amarnath raised 57 runs and ensured that the side had got off to a good start at 59/1.
Srikkanth attacked every bowler, and almost every ball and got to 38 after edging and missing at the start of the innings many times. As compared to that, Amarnath was slow but steady.
Once Malcolm Marshall had sent Srikkanth back, there was another partnership between Amarnath and Yashpal Sharma that got the side to 90 but the momentum had been lost. The pair tried to lift the run rate but was not able to do so and in the process lost too many wickets in the process. 90/2 became 130/7 and despite some starts at the end of the innings all that the side could manage was 183.
A target of 184 was always going to be a below-par one and despite the early wicket of Gordon Greenidge to Balwinder Singh Sandhu, the side was in safe hands with the batting of Viv Richards. Richards looked to be trying to win the game on his own, and scored a mesmerizing 33 off 28 balls, smashing the ball to all parts of the park.
However, that proved to be his downfall. After having taken the Indian pace bowler, Madan Lal for many runs in one over, he tried to hit another ball to the fence but miscued the pull shot. Kapil Dev, the Indian captain ran backward to take what was a difficult catch and the West Indian side was in some trouble.
From 57/2, the team kept losing the wickets at regular intervals and collapsed to 140 all out – falling to the seam of the five Indian bowlers.
Amarnath bowled seven overs in the middle over and scalped three wickets for 12 runs to go with his important 23 and won the man of the match.
India had won the World Cup, becoming only the second team after West Indies to do so.