Kapil Dev-led Indian team stopped West Indies from scoring a hat-trick of World Cup wins.
India had only ever won one game in the first two editions of the tournament, which were also held in England, before their 1983 World Cup victory.
When 24-year-old Kapil Dev was selected India's captain for the 1983 World Cup competition, nobody, not even the players, had high hopes for them.
India started well by defeating West Indies in the league stage and was almost knocked out of the tournament by Zimbabwe. In a match at Tunbridge Wells, India was reduced to 17/5 by Zimbabwe when Kapil Dev played a captain’s knock of 175* to take the team to a good total, and then the bowlers did the rest.
India and West Indies qualified for the semis from their group B, while England and Pakistan qualified from Group A. India faced England in the semi-finals and Pakistan faced the West Indies.
Half-centuries from Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil took India to a great victory over England in the semi-finals, where they met two-time and defending champions West Indies at the Lord’s.
India couldn’t do much with the bat after being put in to bat on a greenish wicket and were bowled out for 183 with Kris Srikkanth making 38 and Mohinder Amarnath making 26. The West Indies was confident of chasing down such a small total in 60 overs.
Though Viv Richards briefly looked like he would take the game away from India, a brilliant running catch by Kapil Dev ended his innings for 33 and then Amarnath picked three wickets as India registered a huge upset by 43 runs.
India’s 1983 World Cup win led to a surge in cricket lovers in India and moved the center of cricket from England to India, which in 1987 hosted the next edition of the World Cup, with Pakistan as co-hosts.
The Indian cricket fraternity celebrated the 40th anniversary of India’s first-ever World Cup win and shared their memories on Twitter.
Here are the tweets: