World Cup Flashback: Let’s stroll through the good old memories of the 1983 World Cup

Brief Summary

The 3^rd edition of World Cup held in 1983 marked the ending of two time champions, West Indies’ World Cup winning streak. Like the year 1975 and 1979, the Clive Llyod led West Indies once again reached the finals with the aim to retain the World Cup title for the third time. But Kapil Dev’s Indian team faded their dream after beating them in the finals. Indian team arrived in the tournament without any hopes, but ended it as the second nation to lift the World Cup title. Before this achievement, Indian team had won only 17 One-Day internationals in the previous nine years. 

In the finals, after Indian team was bowled out at 183 runs, it looked that West Indies will easily get to the target. But, Indian skipper, Kapil Dev‘s prolific running catch developed a spark in Indian players as a result of which Indian team stopped the strong West Indies team at 140 runs.

Like previous two seasons, once again England hosted the World Cup. Total eight teams were a part of this World Cup. But this time Canada was not part of the championship chase and instead the Zimbabwe cricket team made its debut in World Cup. Australia, England, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and India were the eight teams of this championship. These teams were divided into two groups- Group A and Group B.

England and Pakistan from group A qualified for the semifinals while West Indies and India were the semi-finalists from group B. In the first semi-final, India defeated England by 6 wickets to enter the World Cup final for the first time while the mighty West Indies thrashed Pakistan by 8 wickets in the second semi-final, to enter the finals for the third consecutive time. 

Key stats

1. England’s left-handed batsman, David Gower was the highest run-getter of the tournament (384 runs).
2. Indian skipper, Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 175 runs against the debutant team, Zimbabwe was the highest individual score of World Cup 1983.
3. Pakistan registered the highest team total in World Cup 1983 against Sri Lanka, they scored 338/5.
4. Roger Binny, India’s all-rounder was the leading wicket taker of the tournament (18 wickets).
5. West Indies right-arm fast bowler, Winston Davis’ bowling figures (7/51) were the best bowling performance of 1983 World Cup.

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