India celebrates 39th anniversary of historic 1983 World Cup victory

Today marks the day when India won its first ODI (One Day International) World Cup title, which occurred 39 years ago.

India participated in the Cricket World Cup and went to the final stage after beating other teams, namely England, India, Australia, Pakistan, West Indies, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.

1983 final was played at Lord's Cricket Ground on 25 June 1983 and this was the third consecutive World Cup final appearance for the West Indies, the last two Cricket World Cup title holders.

To celebrate and reminisce the historic win, the Board of Control for Cricket in India tweeted: "A historic day & a landmark moment for Indian cricket as #TeamIndia, led by @therealkapildev, clinched World Cup title."

Road to final

1983 final was India’s first final and the team defeated West Indies to claim their first World Cup title. Men in blue beat West Indies in the final stage and the victory begins India’s obsession with crickets.

India faced West Indies, England, and Australia, and won the World Cup after defeating both teams in the semi-final and final, respectively.

India then defeated England by 6 wickets in the first semi-finals to get to the final round. India became the first Asian country in a World Cup Final to face the West Indies, which had advanced after defeating Pakistan.

Starting from the group stage, India twice met Australia and West Indies and they recorded one win and one loss against them.

In the quarter-final, India defeated Zimbabwe by 31 runs, and Kapil Dev said he remembered the moment as the most memorable win.

India’s final stage performance

Captained by Kapil Dev, India made its start in the final with the team's star, Sunil Gavaskar, who served as an opener with the put-in to bat first. However, Gavaskar only recorded two runs and was going off after it.

The player after, Kris Srikkanth and Mohinder Amarnath took India's Innings forward by slamming 38 runs off 57 balls and 26 runs off 80 balls respectively. However, the team was bowled out for 183 in 54.4 overs.

Sandeep Patil was the only player to score 20 runs while still in the game. The right-arm scored 27 runs off 29 deliveries to finish the match as India's second-highest run-scorer, trailing only Srikkanth.

India bowled out West Indies for 142 in 52 overs and won the contest by 43 runs as the two-time defending champions relied on Desmond Haynes, Vivian Richards, and Clive Lloyd in the line-up.

Madan Lal and Mohinder Amarnath each picked three wickets for India’s side. Another cricketer, Balwinder Sandhu scalped two wickets while Kapil Dev and Roger Binny picked one wicket each respectively.

On the champions’ side, Amarnath was named man of the match for scoring 26 runs with the bat and picking three wickets while Srikkanth became the highest scorer in the match by slamming 38 off 57 balls.

Furthermore, the West Indies’ Viv Richards became the top scorer slamming 33 from 28 balls while Andy Roberts had claimed three wickets, and Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, and Larry Gomes took two wickets each respectively.

After winning the World Cup and the triumph at Lord’s in 1983, India snatched the ODI World Cup victory again in 2011. It was led by none other than MS Dhoni.