India's 183: the World Cup final nobody expected them to win
West Indies had won the first two World Cups and were chasing a total of only 183 at Lord's in 1983. India bowled them out for 140 anyway, led by Mohinder Amarnath's three wickets, to win a final that changed the game's balance of power.
Underdogs at Lord's
India had won only one match at either of the first two World Cups before 1983, and West Indies, the defending champions under Clive Lloyd, were overwhelming favourites to win a third final in a row after victories in 1975 and 1979, results that had made them, by some distance, the strongest team the young format of one-day international cricket had produced. Kapil Dev, only 24, was leading a team that had beaten West Indies once already in the group stage, a result most observers dismissed as an aberration against an attack that included Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall, four bowlers who between them had terrorised batting line-ups around the world for the best part of a decade. Lloyd won the toss and chose to field, a decision that looked entirely justified as India's innings unfolded on a pitch offering the pace bowlers early movement.
India are bowled out for 183
Sunil Gavaskar was out for 2 in the first over, caught off the new ball, and India never built the platform their bowling attack would need. Kris Srikkanth made 38 and Mohinder Amarnath 26, the pair adding 57 for the second wicket and offering the only sustained resistance of the innings, and Sandeep Patil made 27 further down the order, but nobody passed 40 and India were bowled out with just over five of their allotted sixty overs still unused, the 1983 final still being played over 60 overs a side rather than the 50 that later became standard. Andy Roberts took 3 for 32 and Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Larry Gomes all shared the rest, bowling with the discipline that had made West Indies nearly unbeatable in one-day international cricket through the previous eight years. India were all out for 183, a low total that on the form of the tournament looked well short of competitive against the strongest batting line-up anywhere in the world at that time, and few in the crowd expected the match to last much beyond the middle of the afternoon.
Greenidge falls early
Balwinder Sandhu removed Gordon Greenidge for 1 with the total on 5, bowling him with a delivery that swung back in sharply and late, and Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards steadied West Indies with a stand of 45 for the second wicket. Richards, playing with the freedom that had made him the tournament's most feared batter, pulled and drove the Indian bowlers with an ease that suggested the defence of 183 would not last long, and looked set to take the game away from India on his own inside the first hour.
The catch that turned the final
Then, with Richards on 33, he attempted to pull Madan Lal for what would have been another effortless boundary, mistimed it, and skied the ball high into the outfield. The India captain Kapil Dev, fielding a long way back and initially running the wrong way, turned at the last moment and sprinted more than twenty metres with his back to the ball before catching it over his shoulder without breaking stride. It remains one of the most replayed moments in the history of the World Cup. Richards was gone, West Indies were 57 for 3, and the total of 183 suddenly looked far more defensible than it had an hour before, with the momentum of the match turned in a single ball.
Amarnath finishes the job
Clive Lloyd and Larry Gomes were both out with the score on 66, and West Indies never recovered the initiative. Lloyd, troubled by a hamstring injury for much of the innings, could not build the kind of captain's innings that had steadied West Indies through previous finals. Malcolm Marshall and Jeff Dujon put on 43 for the seventh wicket, the only real resistance left, before both fell in quick succession. Mohinder Amarnath, who had made 26 with the bat, took 3 for 12 with his gentle medium pace, bowling to a field packed with catchers as West Indies' lower order searched for boundaries that were no longer coming easily, and Madan Lal finished with 3 for 31. West Indies were bowled out for 140, and India had won the World Cup by 43 runs in a result that stunned Lord's and the wider cricket world alike.
What 1983 changed
Mohinder Amarnath was named Man of the Match for his all-round contribution with bat and ball. India's win at Lord's is widely credited with transforming the game's popularity and finances on the subcontinent, laying the ground for India to host the next World Cup only four years later, in 1987, jointly with Pakistan. Kapil Dev lifted the trophy high on the Lord's balcony in front of a crowd that included thousands of Indian supporters who had travelled to London to watch, and the team returned home to scenes of public celebration on a scale that had never before greeted an Indian cricket side. Television and sponsorship money that would eventually make Indian cricket the financial centre of the global game can be traced back, in large part, to the credibility this single afternoon gave the sport in India. West Indies, for their part, would not reach another men's World Cup final for decades afterwards, their dominance of one-day cricket through the 1970s and early 1980s effectively ended in a single afternoon by a team many had not taken seriously when the day began at Lord's. The full scorecard, with every partnership and fall of wicket, is on this page. See how the two sides were built on the India and West Indies team pages, and in The Chase you can bowl first with India, defend a total as modest as 183 against West Indies' strongest batting order, and see whether you can find a moment to turn the match the way Kapil Dev did.
Sources
- CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and partnerships on this page
- ESPNcricinfo: 1983 Prudential World Cup final, Lord's, scorecard and report
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1984: the Prudential World Cup