India, ‘Kapils Devils’ in the Finals of ICC Prudential World cup! Opponent mighty West Indians!
60 Overs match, white jerseys, me 11 years old, no TV, following Radio commentary with my maternal uncle Thomas sir
Gavaskar out early, bit of sweeps and hits by Srikant the highest scorer with 38, Mohinder Amarnath hooked scary Marshall for a four, little bit of firework by Sandeep Patil, ‘the Captain’ Kapil Dev made 15 from 8 balls with 3 fours, when Kirti Azad and Roger Binny got out for duck and 2 respectively, Madan Lal chipped-in with 17 and a fighting last wicket total of 22 runs by wicket keeper Syed Kirmani and Balwinder Sandhu, 183 all-out; 54.4 overs. 3.34 run rate!
Not at all a winning total but a fighting total as per ‘the Captain’.
West Indians chasing 184, early break through, Sandhu clean bowled Greenindge for 1! The great Vivian Richards joined Desmond Haynes and smashed seven boundaries including three in an over off Madan Lal. As they were consolidating the innings, Indian win looked very bleak, impossible! Next over, ‘the Captain’ was hesitant to give to Madan Lal but Madan asked for an extra over. Richards looked on-song to grab third world cup trophy went for a pull off Madan Lal and our ‘the Captain’ covered a pretty long distance run for a breathtaking catch to remove Sir Viv Richards which was considered as the turning point of the match; 3-57.
Yesterday, on 19th November 2023, Travis Head’s catch did the same to dismiss Team India captain Rohit Sharma!
Next, the middle order collapse of the mighty West Indians begins! Confident Madan Lal takes Larry Gomes caught by little master Gavaskar; 4-66. With no runs added to score, West Indian captain Clive Lloyd falls to Binny yet another catch by Kapil Dev. Ten more runs, Sandhu strikes again 6-76. Some resistance from wicket keeper Jeff Dujon and Marshall added 43 runs but MoM Mohinder Amarnath scattered the stumps of Dujon 7-119. And last 3 wickets falls for another 21 runs with Amarnath trapping Michael Holding for 6. From 50-1, the mighty West Indians fell for 140 all-out!!
Kapil’s Devils on the balcony at Lords, then PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi declared a public holiday immediately after India’s historic win.
But, on 19th November 2023, we couldn’t’ see the much deserving Kapil’s Devils on the gallery of Ahmedabad Narendra Modi stadium! Error? its human, forgiving is divine; my Amma’s teaching.
Score Courtesy: Wikipedia
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