India’s former opener Kris Srikkanth stated that the team thought they stood no chance after they were bowled out for a paltry score of 183 against the potent West Indies team in the final of the 1983 World Cup. Srikkanth was the highest run-scorer of the final as he had scored 38 runs off 57 balls with the help of seven fours and one six.
However, Srikkanth revealed that the Indian captain Kapil Dev told his teammates that they should not wave a white flag and they should go out there and fight. It was not going to be easy to defend 183 against the strong West Indies batting line-up but India knew that they would need to pick wickets at regular intervals to stand a chance in the match.
The Indian bowlers did the same as they kept striking consistently. Balwinder Sandhu gave a perfect opening to the team when Gordon Greenidge left the ball and it crashed into right-hander’s stumps.
Kapil Dev took a fine catch to get the big wicket of Viv Richards while running backwards. The Windies were skittled out for 140 runs in 52 overs with Madan Lal and Mohinder Amarnath taking three wickets apiece. Consequently, India won its maiden World Cup by 43 runs and it revolutionised Indian cricket forever.
“With the batting line-up that West Indian had and looking at 183, we thought we had no scope at all. But Kapil Dev said one thing and he didn’t say we can win but he said – look guys we have got out for 183 and we should give resistance and not give away the match so easily,” Srikkanth said on ‘Star Sports 1 Tamil show Winning the Cup – 1983’.
In fact, Srikkanth revealed that the team didn’t feel any kind of pressure in the final against West Indies. India were the underdogs whereas West Indies were favourites to win the final as they had also won the first two editions of the World Cup in 1975 and 1979.
Ergo, the Kapil Dev-led team thought that they had already done a fine job after making their way into the final. In fact, India had managed to win only a solitary match in the first two World Cups and thus making the final of the 1983 was a big achievement.
The top officials of the board told the team members that they should not worry about the result of the final. They also announced a prize of INR 25000 for all the Indian players irrespective of the result.
