New Delhi: The 1983 Cricket World Cup is a milestone in cricketing history of India and one of the defining moments of that world cup remains the 175 runs innings that was played by Kapil Dev and paved the way for inching closer to the world cup.
It was this day, June 18 in the year 1983 when India was playing against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells in England that Kapil smashed fours and sixes and led that match which seemed losing from India’s grip at the start itself.
The match started with Sunil Gavsakar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth opening on the crease but Gavaskar returned back to the pavilion after the second ball of the match and Srikkath too followed soon without scoring. Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil too went back soon after making a total of only six runs.
It was then that Kapil Dev walked down to the pitch to join Yashpal Sharma and then Roger Binny. The score was now 17/5. Kapil and Binny’s partnership yielded runs and gave a push to the match in India’s favour. Kapil was then joined by Ravi Shastri when the scoreboard read 78/7.
It was after this that Kapil Dev started to smash four and sixes in all directions and finished the game unbeaten at 175 runs taking India’s score to 266/8. Kapil had hit 6 sixes and 16 fours in his innings. The match went in India’s favour as they defeated Zimbabwe by 38 runs and entered a level near to the final world cup match and eventually lifted the story.
The only unfortunate part of this ever-living match anecdote will remain the fact that this was the only match for which no visual recording was done as the official broadcaster for the game, BBC was on strike that day.
Nonetheless, this cricketing folklore continues to remain etched in the hearts of cricket fans and Indians as Kapil Dev became first Indian to score 100 in an ODI.