Twenty summers ago the unexpected happened. If you are wondering what the unexpected was, I am willing to bet you ain't an Indian. Mention the year 1983 to any Indian, and ask him or her what that year means to them. In 9 out 10 cases the answer would be, "We won the world cup that year".
Yep, it's twenty years since Kapil's Devils lifted the Prudential World Cup in cricket's birthplace- the Lords.
As Ramachandra Guha says in his article "Memories of 1983"in The Hindu, anytime is a good time to remember the summer of 1983.
An excerpt from the above mentioned article.
"Not one Indian, in India, watched, "live", the moment that turned the match — Kapil Dev's catch to get rid of Richards. Later we saw clips of it. Buoyed by three boundaries in succession, Richards tried to hit a good length ball from Madan Lal through the on side. The ball caught the top part of the bat, but still soared high and beyond midwicket. The Indian captain sprinted back 20 yards to take the catch, smiling as he ran. The smile bespoke of an extraordinary self-confidence. For the swirling skier, for which you have to run behind your back, is one of the most difficult catches in cricket, not least when you are watched by 30,000 anxious pairs of eyes, and this is the final of the most important tournament in the world. But, the superb athlete that he is (or was), Kapil knew as soon as the shot was struck that he had his man. "
Posted by sai at June 22, 2003 03:07 PMThis is definitely a great description of the last moments of that match. Unfortunately I dont remember much of it, but the description of the catch tickled my imagination.
Posted by: beemboy on June 27, 2003 11:40 AM