India tame the West Indies

By A. C. De Silva

WORLD CUP CRICKET: World Cup favourites West Indies were downed by unrated India in their match at Old Trafford by 34 runs in 1983.

This was a stunning win for Kapil Dev's Indian side who built up their best score in the competition till then - 262 for 8 wickets on a pitch softened by morning rain.

By this stunning win here, the Indians showed that the West Indies, winners of both the previous World Cups, can be tamed. The holders were sent crashing to their first ever defeat in the competition when they were shot out for 228 - that's 34 runs behind in 54.1 overs.

India whose previous World Cup win was against East Africa in 1975, claimed their most famous one-day win on Lloyd's own familiar ground at Old Trafford. Even Lloyd couldn't prevent the champs chasing a target of 263 crashing to 157 for 9 wickets. It was only a thrilling last-wicket stand of 71 runs between Andy Roberts and Joel Garner reduced the margin of defeat to 34.

Batting first India was somewhat floundering with their score at 76 for 3 wickets with Gavaskar, Srikanth and Amaranath, all victims of West Indies wicketkeeper Dujon, when Yaspal Sharma intervened with a superb 89. Sharma had a fine partner in Patil to put on 49 runs for the fourth wicket and then went on to take the bull by the horns. He had somewhat grasped the West Indies pace battery and was able to drive, pull and hook with precision and pile on the runs and surpass the previous best individual score by an Indian in the World Cup - 75 by Gundappa Viswanath in 1975.

Sharma made 89 and the sixth wicket partnership between him and Roger Binny realised 73 and this was the partnership which was responsible for India after S. Patil an Kapil Dev both fell to the off-breaks of Larry Gomes. Sharma was finally bowled by Holding while attempting his tenth hit to the fence. He was duly awarded the Man of the Match award for his wonderful knock of 89.

The weather interfered and the West Indies still required 196 runs to avoid defeat but Sharma threw accurately from the cover region to run out Desmond Haynes for 24 and Sandhu knocked back Greenidge's off stump with the score at 56. So, it was 56 for 2 wickets. Then Roger Binny struck early the next day when he had wicketkeeper Kirmani diving and taking the catch offered by Richards. The West Indian Richards who was 11 the previous day, added only six more runs and this was a crucial wicket that the West Indies lost and they never really recovered.

Madan Lal accounted for the other overnight batsman Bacchus, and Lloyd and Dujon were left struggling to keep their wickets intact in humid conditions that assisted the bowlers in swinging the ball even more. The pressure set in and the remaining West Indian batsmen struggled to keep their wickets intact. But Clive Lloyd, known as "Super Cat" looked as a wounded tiger that day.

There was some resistance by the last wicket pair of Joel Garner (37) and Andy Roberts (37 not out) who added 71 runs and finally Shastri ended that partnership having Garner stumped by Kirmani for 37 and finally Roberts remained 37 not out.

It was the first time the West Indies, winners in 1975 and 1979 had been beaten in the World Cup.

		Score Board
		
		INDIA 
S. Gavaskar c. Dujon b. Marshall 	19
K. Srikanth c. Dujon b. Holding 	14
M. Amaranath c. Dujon b. Garner		21
S. Patil b. Gomes			36
Y. Sharma b. Holding 			89
Kapil Dev c. Richards b. Gomes 	 	 6
R. Binny lbw b. Marshall 		27
M. Lal not out				21
S. Kirmani run out	 		 1
R. Shastri not out 	 		 5
Extras 					23
Total (for 8 wkts - 60 overs)          262

Fall of wickets:  1-21, 2-46, 3-76, 4-125, 
		  5-141, 6-214, 7-243, 8-248
Bowling:  M. Holding 12-3-32-2
	  A. Roberts 12-1-51-0
	  M. Marshall 12-1-48-2
	  J. Garner 12-1-49-1
	  I. Richards 2-0-13-0
	  H. Gomes 10-0-46-2

		WEST INDIES 

G. Greenidge b. Sandhu 			24
D. Haynes run out			24
I. Richards c. Kirmani b. Binny		17
S. Bacchus b. Madan Lal 		14
C. Lloyd  b.Binny 			25
P. Dujon c. Sandhu b. Binny		 7
H. Gomes run out 			 8
M. Marshall st. Kirmani b. Shastri 	 2
A. Roberts  not out			37
M. Holding b. Shastri 			 8
J. Garner st. Kirmani b. Shastri 	37
Extras 					26
Total (all out in 54.1 overs)          228

Fall of wickets:  1-49, 2-56, 3-76, 4-96,
		  5-107, 6-124, 7-126, 8-130, 9-157 

Bowling:  Kapil Dev 10-0-34-0
 	  Sandhu 12-1-36-1
 	  Madan Lal 12-1-34-1
 	  R.Binny 12-1-48-3
 	  R. Shastri 5.1-0-26-3
 	  S. Patil 3-0-25-0