It was one of those week nights
or the early mornings around 3 o’clock. I was wondering through various pages
of Cricinfo and Wikipedia when I suddenly felt everything was spinning around
me very fast. I could not keep my eyes open and when I could open my eyes again
I was there for a shock!
I found myself in the stands of
big lash green ground with a cricket pitch in the center. It was a wonderful
sunny day and the ground was full. I looked around to see big galleries as well
as places where people were just sitting and standing on the greens. Various
hoardings of ‘Whimpy’, ‘Telegraph’ and ‘Gilbay’s Gin’ could be seen in the
stands. There was a big black scoreboard with ‘Prudential Cup’ written on the
top. The familiar statue of the Father Time removing the bails could be seen on
top of a stand. And then it strikes me, I am in the Lords cricket ground in
London. Ahhh… a dream location to watch cricket but which match is this? Is
this sometime in future, I asked myself.
But from what I gathered from the
clothes of the people around me, I concluded that I was either in a fancy dress
themed cricket match or magically reached sometime in the past. Most of the
people looked like they are dressed for retro theme party with several people
in bell bottom pants and white floppy hats. Funnily enough, there were not many
people in formals. It was surprising to be in the Lords but finding many few
people in suits, in fact there were none in the stand where I was sitting.
Just to my right, there are two
Sikh gentlemen sitting with an Indian flag. The elderly man gave me a
surprised look and whispered something to his companion’s ear. His companion, a young man of my age nodded
and asked me, “Indian?”
As soon as I nodded in
affirmative he said, “A jao yaar!! Ek sath mil kar bahut masti karenge!”
He asked my name and after a
short conversation about how difficult it is to enter the ground finished it
with the chant of ‘Jo bole so nihal, satshree akaal!’
There was a big contingent of
Indian fans with tri-colour in their hands waving furiously. The other portion
of the crowd was also mostly black with colourful clothes and flashy
sunglasses. They were smoking a lot and even singing, they must be people from
Caribbean!
So ok… some of the questions were
answered. I was in the Lords watching India play West Indies sometime during
80’s. Which match is this? Is this the special one? But obviously I could not
ask anyone, I could not make it so obvious that I was not one of them. Luckily I
thought of something and asked the Punjabi lad, “Who is going to bat?”
“Us! Lloyd has won the toss and
asked us to bat. They have the advantage with the early morning help for their
fast bowlers!”
“But, I would say it’s always
better to bat first, especially in big match like this. It’s a world cup
final!” the elderly man chipped in.
I gave him big thanks in my mind.
Without any shadow of doubt I was sitting in the ground to watch the 1983
cricket world cup final.
Sure enough, within next five
minutes two umpires were on the ground, Dickie Bird and Barrie Meyer. They were
followed by eleven men in white clothes and maroon cap/white cricket hat who
entered the ground with enormous cheer from their fans. They looked very much athletic
with a great team spirit oozing out from their movements.
There were no huddle like modern days;
they just jogged slowly to the ground from the pavilion. I could identify Clive
Lloyd, the eldest in the team with specs on and an air of authority around him.
Viv Richards was just behind him, kept chewing his gum with the ball in his
hand which he threw to a bearded short man, must be Andy Roberts. Roberts was
not a tall man and he looked even smaller beside Joel Garner, the demon in 6
feet 8 inches. There were Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding completing the
pace quartet, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, world’s best opening pair at
that time and very very safe and sound Jeff Dujon as the wicket keeper. Larry
Gomes and Faud Bacchus were the other members in the eleven.
Bigger cheers were waiting for
Indian openers. Here are they. I could see the short figure of Sunil Gavaskar
without any helmet or other headgear walking towards the wicket, focused and
determined. With him the taller man with an old-fashioned blue helmet must be
Krishnamachari Srikkanth.
I was sitting in a mixed
population of Indian and West Indian fans. All the Indian fans were shouting
and waving the flags in their hand after watching the Indian pair in to the
ground. One gentleman from West Indian fans shouted in his Jamaican accent,
“Don’t Score too much Maan! It’s a pain in the ass when you keep hitting our
bowlers!”
“Scared of Gavaskar!” the younger
Sardar snorted!
And as always, within a few
minutes Gavaskar was ready to take the first strike. For Windies, Andy Roberts
was given the new ball from the nursery end. The first delivery was on the off
stamp which Gavaskar played tentatively to the point. It was pretty much
eventless, the first over, except one fumble by big Joel Garner which helped
India open their account.
“It’s a fucking final Joe, not a
match in your street!!” Windies fan around me showed their displeasure at that
miss. But those same ones started cheering at a peach of a delivery which
bounced awkwardly from good length by Garner in the next over!
The third over brought the first
mishap for India. Roberts kept maintaining his ‘just outside the off stamp’
line and Gavaskar trying to play a shot in the offside nicked to Dujon! The
whole group of West Indies supporters were on their feet. They were dancing
like it was a wild party. The elder Sardar beside me was in absolutely shock
though! He just mumbled, “Hai Raam! What a bad shot!”
Amarnath walked in to the middle
and joined Srikkanth, who was not looking solid but he tried to hide his
nervousness with some audacious shot making. He played a primitive version of
upper cut to Garner and then hooked and pulled Roberts for four and six. With
every boundary there were drums playing in the gallery.
Srikkanth reach his quarter
century in the 13th over and scored 25 out of India’s total of 32.
Amarnath was solid who played a wonderful hook towards mid-wicket for three
earlier.
Srikkanth kept hitting and square
drove Garner for a four. But then Amarnath played the shot of the morning when
he hooked a Malcolm Marshal bouncer to fine leg for four. Indian team crossed
50 run mark with huge cheer from the fans, the younger Sardar beside me tap on
my shoulder and said, “Srikkanth shala aaj fifty marega!”
But it was not the case, finally
one of the deliveries from marshal came in and hit Srikkanth on the pad. I
noticed that the umpire was pretty quick in giving that out!
Yaspal Sharma was the next man
in. He came with small cheer, but started aggressively, played a wonderful shot
towards point boundary of Holding. Amarnath on the side looked solid and kept
scoring runs at every loose ball. After spells from the pace quartet Lloyd
handed the ball to Larry Gomes for his off spin. It looked like Amarnath
thought that as scoring opportunity and He drove Gomes powerfully to extra
cover for a four.
India reached 90 in the 30th
over and all the Indians in the ground looked quite relived, especially the
Sardars beside me who brought out some Paratha from their bag and even offer me
one. But even those awesome Parathas tasted so horrible when the ‘whispering
death’ Michael Holding got through Amarnath’s defence and his off stamp went
for a walk!!
Amarnath trudged back with lots
of respectful claps all around the ground. He looked solid and his 26 of 80
balls was the main backbone of the first half of Indian innings.
But this was just the start, very
next over Sharma goes; trying to hit Larry Gomes he gave a catch to the square
third man fielder. Kapil Dev came with thunderous cheer, the Sardars beside me
went crazy, clapped hysterically and shouted as many praised words as possible in
Punjabi!! Kapil was also a favourite of mine in the very early age and hence
even I did not show any lack of enthusiasm while clapping and cheering for him.
And he obviously looked a busy
player, Kapil was the only player from that group of 11 Indian players whom I
have seen live earlier and he reminded me of some of the matches during 91-93,
my early days of cricket watching. He hit two fours in one Larry Gomes over and
reached to 15 very quickly in less than 10 balls. In between he took a single
of Richards’ over to take India’s total to 100. Again the drums were playing
and shouting of ‘India- India’ could be heard.
But as I remembered in my
childhood days, Kapli played one shot too many and lofted a simple Gomes
delivery to the throat of long on where Michael Holding took a simple catch!
And when Kirti Azad came and gone
without disturbing the scorers a clear shadow of glum was thrown over the
Indian supporters in the ground. Six wickets down with only 111 in the board!
How much could they score? 150? Max 160? The older Sarder dropped to his seat.
He was shaking his head. The younger one looked at me with disbelief in his
eyes, “Are we gonna lose?” he asked me.
What could I say! I just shook my
head and optimistically said, “Let’s see, there are more batsmen to come!”
“There’s only Binny and Madanlal.
I don’t trust Kirmani and Sandhu is just the perfect number eleven!” he
exclaimed!
The West Indies fans on the other
hand were jumping like all of their birthdays have come on the same day! There
were lots of cheering, dancing and hat throwing among them. The calypsos were
sung one after another and when India were six down some of them actually gave
us a piece of their mind about what they thing about Indian team and how can
Greenidge and Haynes themselves can chase down the score giving good rest to
Richards and Lloyd in the dressing room. Some of the remarks were not so
soothing, especially when your team has lost their last 4 wickets for 21 runs
and the Sardars and some other Indian fans got into some sort of fight which
was almost turning towards a free style group wrestling match when a few
British police intervened and kept the things under control.
The one man who stood among all
these calamities was Sandip Patil. With his tall figure and beard he reminded me
of Yusuf Pathan. Patil came after Amarnath’s fall and hold on to one side when
3 of his team mates were dismissed. Roger Binny came and joined him. Patil was
playing a lot of sweep shots to Gomes and in the following over swept Gomes for
a big Six over square leg. It cheered up the mood of Indian supporters and they
started to get their voice back. Next over Patil played another nice cut shot
to thirdman for a well-run three but then Binny played an uppish flick shot to
give another catch to Garner of Roberts! India was 7 down for 130.
How many runs more? Everyone have
the same question in their mind. Another all-rounder came from the dressing
room and joined Patil. This time it was Madanlal.
West Indies bowlers were pretty
much on the top. Lloyd kept Gomes bowling as he needed to get 12 overs from his
5th bowler. On the other end he kept rotating his four fast bowlers.
Gomes was hit for another six over square leg. This time it was Madanlal. He
looked confident and another push towards short mid-wicket took India’s total
to 150, but soon after Patil was gone. He tried to Pull Garner but again his
shot went upwards and Gomes took the catch in the mid-wicket.
So, India’s last hope was gone.
Patil had the ability to take India to a respectable total.
“He played so well in the
semi-final!” The Sardar shook his head.
Kirmani was the next batsman.
India’s wicketkeeper was coming at number 10. I felt awkward thinking about all
these batsman-wicketkeeper in recent times who bat in the top order.
Madanlal kept fighting but one
Marshall delivery was too fast for him and went through his defence. The end
was near. Indians were 9 wickets down in the 46th over. And then I
realised that this is a 60 over match and another almost 15 overs to go.
But, Indian supporters were
pleasantly surprised when India’s number 10 and 11, Kirmani and Sandhu decided
to grind. They kept surviving somehow. In between Sandhu hit a powerful drive
to the boundary. As usual being a number 11, all his runs were hugely cheered
by the Indian fans.
Marshall was surely not impressed
and bowled a vicious bouncer to Sandhu which hit him on the helmet. Clearly the
West Indian fans loved it and kept shouting for more! Luckily no damage was
done and immediately after that bouncer Sandhu played another strong drive,
this time towards long on. They kept batting for almost an hour and added 22
precious runs when finally Holding got success in getting through Kirmani’s
defence! India finished with 183 on the boards.
When the players were going back
to their respective dressing rooms, we fans got into an animated debate about
whether this 183 was enough. But keeping the strong West Indian batting line up
in mind not many Indian fans were very optimistic. Few of them did say things
like, “Kapil can swing” or “Madanlal is bowling well” but those were few and
far between and the general sense was a feeling of despair and mentally
preparing ourselves for the runners up prize.
As expected the Caribbean fans were in a very cheerful mood with singing and dancing galore! Some of
them even decided on which pub to go in the evening to celebrate their third
world cup win! Obviously they did not bother to keep those discussions out of
our ear; in fact some of them made it a point that we could hear what they are
talking about!
The two West Indian openers
walked in to the middle and Greenidge took the first strike to face Kapil. Sure
enough, Kapil Dev swung the ball but it did not look too alarming for
Greenidge. From the other end it was the medium pace of Balbindar Singh Sandhu
with red turban on his head. The Sardars cheered loudly for him but that cheer
got somewhat died down when Haynes drove strongly for a boundary to start the
run count for West Indies.
In Kapil’s second over a thick
outside edge helped Greenidge to open his account and as a result of that
single me moved to the other end and faced Sandhu. Sandhu with his medium pace
never looked threatening and when he pitched one ball just outside the off
stump Greenidge just let it go and did not offer a stroke. But to his utter
dismay the ball cut back and rattled the off stump to give India the early
break through.
The Indian fans on the ground
went crazy, they started jumping up and down and waving flags, getting the
world’s best opening partnership separated with just 5 runs on the board was
something special and fans enjoyed that moment to the core. Similar scenes
could be seen in our stand too, the Sardar father and son hugged each other in
tight embrace and after that the younger one hugged me. Lots of high fives and
hand sakes were going on with huge chants of ‘India… India’ and ‘Bharat mata ki
jay’!
It was a big shock for the West
Indian fans! They could not believe that Greenidge could get out so cheaply but
their mood surely lifted after seeing the astute figure of Viv Richards coming
out to bat.
Viv started briskly. He pulled
Sandhu in the 6th over to get his first boundary, drove Kapil
through the extra cover. Madanlal came as the first change and Viv hit him for
3 boundaries in one over to quickly reach 30. West Indies was 50 for loss of
just one wicket.
In the other end, Haynes did not
looked too settled and when he drove Madanlal on the rise, the timing was not
quite there and it was an easy catch for Roger Binny in the cover. Again the
Indian fans cheered loudly but still Viv was there and was joined by his
captain Lloyd in the middle.
Lloyd was off the mark
immediately through a single in the thirdman but then he looked in trouble. He
could not walk properly and after some bit of treatment Desmond Haynes came
back to ground to run for his captain.
And then Richards got out! It
happened so suddenly we could not understand what happened. He pulled one ball
from Madanlal which went high on the air but outside any players reach near
deep mid-wicket. Kapil thought otherwise, he ran back from his normal
mid-wicket position, saw the ball till the last moment and completed the catch!
It was an awesome bit of fielding. One of the most memorable amongst what I
have seen. And the ground turned truly crazy! All the Indian supporters were on
their feet, some of them even entered the ground to congratulate Kapil. Drums
and horns were in full volume. It was a great moment for India team, the best
batsman from the opponents was gone.
The West Indian fans were surely
disappointed but still did not lose heart. Their captain was still batting and
despite not being 100% he was still capable enough to take West Indies home.
But when India struck again at the score of 66, not once but twice including
the wicket of great Lloyd, even those fans started to have doubts.
On the other hands Indian fans
were on the moon! More than 100 people ran in to the ground to celebrate the
wicket. The fans in the stands went berserk!! Claps, cheers, shout… Lords felt
like a crazy place!
“Can we make it?” the elder
Sardar whispered. He was scared to say that loud, he feared that he might jinx
it but I realised that, in his heart he wanted to shout those words out because
I was in the same state of mind as his.
Not only were the fans, even the
11 Indian players in the ground were charged up. It could be seen from their
body language and out of this enthusiasm they could have get a run out of
Dujon.
What happened was, Bacchus
defensively played on ball to the point, Dujon from the non-striker end just
took a few steps, but Srikkanth from the point charged towards the ball, picked
up and hit the wicket with a direct throw. Umpires did not give it out; I
wondered what would happen in case there would be third umpire with television
replays available!
Madanlal was bowling superbly, 3
of the 5 wickets were taken by him. Kapil made a change to bring Sandhu back.
It was an inspired change, Sandhu immediately got Bacchus nicked one and
Kirmani dived in front of Gavaskar in the first slip to take a great catch.
West Indies 6 down for 76, they required another 108 runs with their last 4
wickets.
Malcolm Marshall came and joined
Dujon as the 8th batsman. I remembered how in my younger days used
to read about those 4 great all-rounders; Imran, Kapil, Marshall and Hadley and
the comparison between them to decide who the best was.
Marshall looked solid while
batting. He and Dujon ensured that there was a partnership. They batted very slowly
though, grinding out runs. Their main objective was to stay in the wicket, but
Dujon was ready to punish the bad balls and he pulled a short ball from Sandhu
for six. They took West Indies pass 100 and kept taking singles.
The people in the stands, specially
the Indian fans started to become tensed. Not much cheer, everyone was waiting
for something to happen. Some like me must have started praying to their gods.
This partnership need to be broken. Their partnership crossed 40 and only 60
odd runs were required for West Indies to get their third world cup.
In the 42nd over Kapil
Dev introduced Mahinder Amarnath to the bowling. It was funny to see Amarnath
bowling for the first time. You will get a feeling that he is jogging
reluctantly towards the wicket and may not even reach and deliver the ball. But
he surely bowled and in the very first over one of his slow medium pace
deliveries took the inside edge of Dujon’s bat and rattled his wicket! 7th
wicket was down, now only the 3 fast bowlers left.
First one of them, Andy Roberts
came and joined Marshall. But Amarnath was bowling superbly and in the next
over he forced Marshall to nick one of his out swingers and Gavaskar happily
grab that one.
One man I have not mentioned much except that
exceptional catch of Viv Richards was Kapil Dev. Kapil was wonderful as a
captain in that match. He made right bowling changes and correct field placing
and obviously bowled wonderfully well, so when he came back for his second
spell I prayed for a wicket for him. He got Roberts
leg-before-wicket to bring India to the brink of victory! He stood there with
both his hands raised, realized that his team is going to make history in next
few minutes.
Another joyous mob entered the
ground after the fall of Roberts’ wicket, those guys were forced away by the
police but by that time they were so much in the party mood nobody even
bothered by those pushes. All the Indian fans in the stand were having a great celebration.
Around me, people were doing ‘Bhangra’, led by the two Sardars as expected. The
West Indians fans were quite, with many of them lighting cigars to hide their
disappointment.
The last pair, Garner and Holding
was in the wicket. They tried to delay the inevitable. Runs were coming in
snail’s pace but they kept batting for almost half an hour and took the score
to 140.
And then, in the last ball of the
52nd over Holding tried to pull Amarnath, the ball kept relatively
low, hit him on the pad and umpire’s finger was raised even before the appeal
was completed. I was watching very intensely but at that point everything
became a blur, I could not believe it. We have won the world cup!! India has
beaten on of the greatest sides in the cricket history to win the cup!
As soon as the final wicket fall the players dashed
towards the pavilion as thousands of hysteric Indian as well as some West
Indian fans were on the ground. Everybody wanted to go near the Members’ stand
where they can have a better view of the prize distribution; some of them were
just running and jumping like crazy, people around me got into tight embrace
with each other and then even we ran in to the ground, I realized I have tears
in my eyes, tears of unbound joy and happiness, the happiness of seeing your
country winning the biggest prize in the game you love! But I ran hard; I had
to get a good view of Kapil lifting the world cup!!
