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India's World Cup journey - Sweet and Sour
By Binu Paul, SiliconIndia
|
Saturday, 19 February 2011, 13:26 IST |
12 Comments
Bangalore: Can MS Dhoni and his boys kiss the cup of glory one more time for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and for the whole nation? As Sachin rightly pointed out, Kapil's Devils victory over the mighty West Indies in the 1983 Cricket World Cup final has changed the course of Indian cricket forever. Here is a sneak peek at India at the Cricket World Cups since then.
1983 - Beginning of a new era of cricket in India
No one ever thought, not even in their wildest dreams, that India would defeat the Windies who had been unstoppable in the previous two world cups. Led by the legends like Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil took India through the semis with their bats to win over England. Mohinder Amarnath was awarded "Man of the Match" in the finals and semi-finals for his all rounder performance. Roger Binny and Madan Lal led the bowling pack along with Amarnath and took the match away from the Windies. Kapil Dev's 175 not out and the stunning catch to dismiss Vivian Richards running 20 yards cannot be forgotten. Gavaskar, Syed Kirmani and Srikkanth showed their class and took the glorious cup to a nation where cricket was not the same again since then.
1987 - The mega event coming home for the first time
Hosting the World Cup for the first time, India was in great form throughout the league stages, winning five of the six matches, the one lost was just by a margin of 1 run against Australia. India went into the semi-finals looking forward to face the arch-rivals Pakistan in the final. But to the horror of fans, their world cup campaign ended in the semis against England. Although the captain Kapil bowled strongly, Indian batting lineup consisting of Navjot Sidhu and Sunil Gavaskar failed with Mohammed Azharuddin (64 from 74 balls) being the sole batsman fighting back. Navjot Sidhu was India's star with the bat scoring consistently throughout.
