Remembering 18th June 1983..!! Wow...Refreshed Memory..!!

Cricket World Cup 1983 is best known for being the tournament of the underdogs. It was the third event to be held in England in the history of Cricket World Cup. Contested by eight countries, this tournament followed the same pattern as the pervious two world championships.

The matches in Cricket World Cup 1983 had 60 overs per team. The eight teams were divided into two groups of four countries each. Each country played its group member twice, and the two best teams from each group qualified for the semis.


Cricket World Cup 1983 witnessed the downfall of West Indies as the superpower of the cricketing world. The biggest upsets in the tournament were caused by minnows India and Zimbabwe, who defeated champions West Indies and Australia respectively in the group stages. Winners of the first two Cricket World Cups, West Indies had a tough time battling then inconsequential teams like India.

Eventually, England, West Indies, India and Pakistan qualified for the semi-finals of Cricket World Cup 1983. West Indies and India went on to qualify for the final.


But I would never forget that match between india and zimbabwe on 18th june 1983 where Kapil Dev really smashed best innings at world cup.

Though I am 1987 born alien,i saw the match clips and was very impressed with the clarity of play which kapil paaji followed in his betting to take india into semifinals.!!

On a damp pitch on which bowling first would have been better option,kapil chose batting and indian batting line up crashed heavily..!!

It was 78/7 and kapil got india out of trouble not only scoring 175 but finally winning the same game and ultimetly the 1983 world cup..!!

India innings (60 overs maximum)
SM Gavaskar lbw b Rawson 0
K Srikkanth c Butchart b Curran 0
M Amarnath c Houghton b Rawson 5
SM Patil c Houghton b Curran 1
Yashpal Sharma c Houghton b Rawson 9
*N Kapil Dev not out 175
RMH Binny lbw b Traicos 22
RJ Shastri c Pycroft b Fletcher 1
S Madan Lal c Houghton b Curran 17
+SMH Kirmani not out 24
Extras (lb 9, w 3) 12
Total (8 wickets, 60 overs) 266

DNB: BS Sandhu.

FoW: 1-0 (Gavaskar), 2-6 (Srikkanth), 3-6 (Amarnath),
4-9 (Patil), 5-17 (Yashpal Sharma), 6-77 (Binny),
7-78 (Shastri), 8-140 (Madan Lal).

Not only he batted fantastic,but also took a wicket while bowling at less than 3 R.P.O

Zimbabwe innings (target: 267 runs from 60 overs)
RD Brown run out 35
GA Paterson lbw b Binny 23
JG Heron run out 3
AJ Pycroft c Kirmani b Sandhu 6
+DL Houghton lbw b Madan Lal 17
*DAG Fletcher c Kapil Dev b Amarnath 13
KM Curran c Shastri b Madan Lal 73
IP Butchart b Binny 18
GE Peckover c Yashpal Sharma b Madan Lal 14
PWE Rawson not out 2
AJ Traicos c & b Kapil Dev 3
Extras (lb 17, w 7, nb 4) 28
Total (all out, 57 overs) 235

FoW: 1-44 (Paterson), 2-48 (Heron), 3-61 (Pycroft), 4-86 (Brown),
5-103 (Houghton), 6-113 (Fletcher), 7-168 (Butchart),
8-189 (Peckover), 9-230 (Curran), 10-235 (Traicos).