Bowled out for 183 against the two-time defending champions, India dismissed West Indies for 140 — Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal taking three wickets each — to win the 1983 World Cup and change Indian sport forever.
India were 66-1 outsiders, having lost to WI in the previous two World Cup finals' equivalents.
India scored 183, considered short of par on a slow Lord's pitch.
India batted first and were dismissed for 183 in 54.4 overs, with Krishnamachari Srikkanth's 38 the top score. The West Indies, chasing under 200 against an attack of medium pacers, got off to a flier through Greenidge and Richards, who reached 33 from 28 balls. Then Madan Lal banged one in short, Richards skied a hook, and Kapil Dev ran 25 yards over his shoulder at midwicket to take the catch that won the match. From 50 for 1 the West Indies collapsed to 76 for 6. Mohinder Amarnath, with figures of 7-0-12-3, took the final wicket, was awarded Man of the Match for his 26 runs and three wickets, and the Indian dressing room erupted. The win is universally credited with transforming Indian cricket from a niche pursuit into a national obsession and laid the financial foundation for the IPL era four decades later.
Kapil's catch to dismiss Richards
WI collapse from 50/1 to 76/6
Mohinder Amarnath 3/12
Madan Lal 3/31
Final wicket — WI all out 140
Toss
WI win toss, bowl
India innings
183 all out (Srikkanth 38)
WI 50/1
Richards in flow
Richards out
Caught Kapil bowled Madan Lal
Result
WI all out 140; India win by 43 runs
“I just ran. I didn't think.”
“We didn't have the bowlers, but we had the heart.”
India returned to a transformed cricket landscape; television rights and sponsorship money flowed into the BCCI within months.
The most consequential single match in the history of Indian sport.
Routinely voted India's greatest sporting moment. Without 1983, no IPL, arguably no commercial T20 game.
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