World Cup - 1983

In 1983 again England hosted the World Cup and was again called the Prudential World Cup. This time also eight teams participated – Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, SriLanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe (new team).

Here again, the teams were divided into two groups of 4 teams each. In the preliminary matches, unlike the previous World Cups, each team in a group played twice with the other teams in the same group.

This World Cup was full of surprises, with the then underdogs, India and Zimbabwe beating West Indies and Australia respectively in their preliminary matches. So from group A England and Pakistan while in group B West Indies and India qualified for the semifinals.

In semifinals against England, Mohinder Amarnath, with his allround performance helped the Indian team in defeating England at their home ground. He was awarded the man of the match of his allround performance in this semifinal.

In the other semifinals between West Indies and Pakistan, West Indies defeated Pakistan and entered the finals.

So India again had to face the mighty West Indies, who had a strong fast bowling attack. India were bowled out for a mere score of 183 in just 54.4 overs. Srikant was the highest run getter in the Indian side with 38 runs. Amarnath stayed for long and tried to give stability to the team.

After such a poor batting performance, the hopes of the Indian team were almost non-existent. Viv Richards was then playing at his best hammering the Indian pace attack to all parts of the ground. But then a miss hit by Richards went high up in the air and Kapil Dev (Captain) ran a distance almost upto the boundary to take a stunning catch. Then on, the Indian bowlers consistently took wickets and led India to a victory. India beat West Indies by 43 runs. Amarnath again was declared the man of the match of his economical bowling and 3 wickets.

India beat the mighty West Indies to bring home the third World Cup – Prudential Cup