The Indian batsmen would have faced some kind of a challenge if the Sri Lankans had also included Ajantha Mendis or even Rangana Herath to make up for the inability of Angelo Mathews to play. But the choice of the innocuous medium pacers, Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera, only exposed the weakness of Sri Lankan bowling. It wasn’t surprising, therefore, that Sri Lanka’s only success was in Malinga’s first spell when he dismissed Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendular.

Otherwise, the wickets of Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir fell against the run of play. Kohli’s dismissal was due to the remarkable return catch taken by Tilakaratne Dilshan. Even then, if, as Nassir Hussain pointed out, Gambhir had not moved away to give enough space to Dilshan to catch the ball, he might not have succeeded. If Gambhir had remained where he was, Dishan would have bumped into him and, in all probability, dropped the ball. Gambhir’s dismissal was, of course, due to his own fault, for he played a rash stroke to deprive himself of a century, which would have been as deserving as Mahela Jayawardene’s.

In the run-up to the final also, India faced a much weakened Australia with Brett Lee well past his best and the erratic Shaun Tait yet to develop as a dependable strike bowler despite his pace and penchant for sledging. Except for the solid opening pair of Shane Watson and Brad Haddin and, of course, the still formidable Ricky Ponting, Australia was a shadow of its former self. Although Pakistan played beyond its capabilities to reach the semi-final, there was no way that its untested batting line up, with the low Test match averages of everyone except Younus Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, as Imran Khan pointed out, could have reached the top of the ladder. Its bowling was much better, of course, than its batting, especially Wahab Riaz and Shahid Afridi. But a team which was weak in two – batting and fielding - out of the three departments of the game was fortunate enough to reach as high as it did.

It wasn’t surprising, therefore, that India was regarded as the favourite even before the tournament started. This expectation showed how different the scene was from 1983. In that year, Kapil’s Devils came out of nowhere to be the champions. This time the result could not have been otherwise. In 1983, when India lost the first four wickets for nine runs against Zimbabwe and, then, were 17 for 5 and 73 for 7, commentators were not surprised. They thought that the expected was happening. India was on its way out without making any impression, as in the previous two world cups in 1975 and 1979.

But, they hadn’t reckoned with the genius of Kapil Dev. His hurricane 175 – he was hitting the ball “over our heads into the parking lot outside”, reminisced Sunil Gavaskar – not only swept Zimbabwe out of the competition, it marked the resurrection of Indian cricket. This new status was confirmed two years later when India won the world championship of cricket in Australia in 1985 after beating Pakistan in the 1984 Asia cup final. After that, India did not look back. Having become a force to reckon with in world cricket, it was only natural that the sub-continent would host of the world cup in 1987, and the expectation then was that India and Pakistan would play the final in Calcutta, as it was known then.

The year, 1983, therefore, marked the transformation of Indian cricket and, as might be expected, Kapil Dev once again featured in the defining moment of that thrilling change by running for metres and metres in the outfield to catch the skier from Viv Richards. Whatever the Indian cricket team has achieved since then, including its latest success, is based on the extraordinary manner in which the team led by Kapil Dev came from way behind to beat all the others. If the achievements of that momentous time are remembered, the present team can be said to have had an easy run.

The only team which could have tested it fully this time – as it indeed did by defeating India – was South Africa with its fiery pace attack, adequate spinners, strong batting line up and excellent fielding. But the well-known “chokers” were again not up to the challenge. Despite the early setbacks, India did not stumble against Zimbabwe in 1983. It rose like a phoenix.
(IPA Service)