Legendary West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts feels India were “lucky” to win the 1983 World Cup. In Kapil Dev’s leadership, underdogs India, beat the mighty West Indies in the final at Lord’s to create history with their maiden world title. West Indies, the unbeaten champions of the previous two editions of the World Cup, came into the tournament as an outright favourite with hosts England and Australia being their formidable challengers. Very few gave India a chance to qualify for the semi-finals, let alone win the tournament. But the Kapil Dev-side proved the doubters wrong, at least some of them.
India were clubbed with two-time world champions West Indies and Australia in the same group that also featured Zimbabwe. Each team in the group had to face each other twice and the top two-ranked teams would advance to the semi-finals. India’s record in the previous two editions of the World Cup did not ooze confidence but they started off with a bang by defeating West Indies in their first group match. This was the first time West Indies were beaten in a World Cup match since the inception of a tournament in 1975.
India lost to West Indies in the second leg but went on to topple Australia and Zimbabwe (twice) to book a spot in the semi-finals, where they beat hosts England to enter the finals.
Despite beating the West Indies in their tournament opener, hardly anybody gave India a chance of repeating the same in the finals. But just like the group stage, they pulled a rabbit out of the hat. India surprised everyone by defending 183 against a batting line-up comprising Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd, and Viv Richards.
India and West Indies played three matches in the 1983 World Cup and India ended up on the winning side twice, including the final. But Roberts, who was one of the leaders of West Indies’ fearsome pace battery of that time, thinks West Indies were clearly the better team in the tournament.
