I still fondly remember Kapil's innings of 175 not out against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup exactly 37 summers back. I was in my village to spend the summer vacation of my school days.
That match was not being telecasted due to a strike by BBC Employees. In fact non of the league matches were shown live in India. World Of Sports program on Sunday afternoon in Doordarshan, the only TV Channel available at that time used to show some Workd Cup Cricket highlights. That's all. Only semi-final and finals were telecasted live later.
There was no TV in our village those days. I was listening to the running commentary on BBC Radio. Soon after India batted it slid to 17 for the loss of 5 wickets. I was now convinced that India is going to lose as I was skeptic of them recovering from that point. It could have been the end of India's World Cup dream and Aussie skipper Kim Hughes's earlier prediction of India being the dark horse of the tournament would have gone unnoticed.
Kevin Curran and Rawson, the two opening fast bowlers of Zimbabwe were creating havoc in Indian batting lineup, but for some strange reason Captain Duncan Fetcher took them off from the attack when India was reeling at 17/ 5. It was twilight time and the electricity went out as it was quite normal in our village (5-10 hours of electricity in summer was manna dew from heaven those days).
I huffed and puffed to the local HAAT (market) about 3 km away to fetch some batteries. Rushed back and slid 4 RED EVEREADYs (an ubiquitous battery brand those days) into our MURPHY radio and stretched its antenna to its max. Those days it was difficult to catch BBC or Radio Ceylon stations post sunset. It was followed by a good 5 minutes of struggle to adjust the vertical bar to the exact location with intermittent bursts of farts from it, CHRRRRD... PRRRRRTT.., before I could finally manage to tune into BBC, expecting India to be all out for somewhere around 100.
I was wrong. To my pleasant surprise Kapil Dev had just scored a 100. There was about 10 overs to go and the score was inching towards 200. From this point the Haryana Hurricane was totally unstoppable and Tunbridge Wells witnessed a complete massacre of the bowlers. He made a mincemeat of Rawson and Curran who were back in the attack after their morning show when they ripped through India's batting line up like a hot knife through butter. Now it was Kapil's turn to reciprocate.
The commentator was blaring with high pitch "Khaphil Dhev on rampage". Finally the Indian innings ended at 266 in 60 overs (that was the last 60 overs World Cup). The rest we know is history. Had India lost that match they could have never reached the semi-finals. Without being in semi-final they could not have gone to final. Without being in final they couldn't have won the world cup. Without the World Cup win cricket may not have gained the momentum in India, as I believe our 1983 World Cup win against the mighty Windies acted as a catalyst to cricket in India.That innings of Kapil Dev forever changed the history of cricket.
Couldn't stop mentioning here - in that match Gavaskar was out for a duck, Sandip Patil and Ravi Sastri, each for 1. If India lost this match it would have been out of the World Cup and a 24 year old Kapil Dev would have been thrown out of the Captainship. Gavaskar who lost his Captainship to Kapil Dev following India's disastrous tour to Pakistan just 6 months ago in which Imran Khan single handedly destroyed India, won't have minded to get his Captainship back. Now connect the dots......
That match was not being telecasted due to a strike by BBC Employees. In fact non of the league matches were shown live in India. World Of Sports program on Sunday afternoon in Doordarshan, the only TV Channel available at that time used to show some Workd Cup Cricket highlights. That's all. Only semi-final and finals were telecasted live later.
There was no TV in our village those days. I was listening to the running commentary on BBC Radio. Soon after India batted it slid to 17 for the loss of 5 wickets. I was now convinced that India is going to lose as I was skeptic of them recovering from that point. It could have been the end of India's World Cup dream and Aussie skipper Kim Hughes's earlier prediction of India being the dark horse of the tournament would have gone unnoticed.
Kevin Curran and Rawson, the two opening fast bowlers of Zimbabwe were creating havoc in Indian batting lineup, but for some strange reason Captain Duncan Fetcher took them off from the attack when India was reeling at 17/ 5. It was twilight time and the electricity went out as it was quite normal in our village (5-10 hours of electricity in summer was manna dew from heaven those days).
I huffed and puffed to the local HAAT (market) about 3 km away to fetch some batteries. Rushed back and slid 4 RED EVEREADYs (an ubiquitous battery brand those days) into our MURPHY radio and stretched its antenna to its max. Those days it was difficult to catch BBC or Radio Ceylon stations post sunset. It was followed by a good 5 minutes of struggle to adjust the vertical bar to the exact location with intermittent bursts of farts from it, CHRRRRD... PRRRRRTT.., before I could finally manage to tune into BBC, expecting India to be all out for somewhere around 100.
I was wrong. To my pleasant surprise Kapil Dev had just scored a 100. There was about 10 overs to go and the score was inching towards 200. From this point the Haryana Hurricane was totally unstoppable and Tunbridge Wells witnessed a complete massacre of the bowlers. He made a mincemeat of Rawson and Curran who were back in the attack after their morning show when they ripped through India's batting line up like a hot knife through butter. Now it was Kapil's turn to reciprocate.
The commentator was blaring with high pitch "Khaphil Dhev on rampage". Finally the Indian innings ended at 266 in 60 overs (that was the last 60 overs World Cup). The rest we know is history. Had India lost that match they could have never reached the semi-finals. Without being in semi-final they could not have gone to final. Without being in final they couldn't have won the world cup. Without the World Cup win cricket may not have gained the momentum in India, as I believe our 1983 World Cup win against the mighty Windies acted as a catalyst to cricket in India.That innings of Kapil Dev forever changed the history of cricket.
Couldn't stop mentioning here - in that match Gavaskar was out for a duck, Sandip Patil and Ravi Sastri, each for 1. If India lost this match it would have been out of the World Cup and a 24 year old Kapil Dev would have been thrown out of the Captainship. Gavaskar who lost his Captainship to Kapil Dev following India's disastrous tour to Pakistan just 6 months ago in which Imran Khan single handedly destroyed India, won't have minded to get his Captainship back. Now connect the dots......
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