Page 10 - Seniors Toady March 2020

terminate the team’s campaign. There was more
When Kapil Dev got into his groove, the Indian innings got
the kiss of life
match in London, which was base, instead?
Also, I was very keen to watch New Zealand’s
rising star, batsman Martin Crowe, of whom I had
heard so much. And their match was to be played
at the Oval, which was my favourite ground
(though I had never seen it earlier) ever since B S
Chandrashekhar’s team had helped India win a
Test series in England for the first time, in 1971.
As it happened, what looked like an eminently
sensible decision turned out to be totally wrong.
While I was watching England v New Zealand at
the Oval, India were pulling off an upset win over
West Indies.
Because of rain that match spilled over into the
second day for a bit, but the West Indies had
to bite the dust, which caused bookmakers to
issue a hasty revision of odds. West Indies were
still favourites but India, 66-1 at the start of the
tournament, had the odds against them revised.
Once bitten twice shy, I eschewed any further
adventurism where match coverage was
concerned, following the Indian team diligently
for their remaining matches in the league phase
though there was nothing exceptional to report.
After the big upset in the first match, India
seemed to have slumped into a familiar rut, losing
match after match, except the first one against
Zimbabwe. This was a double leg, two-group
tournament, in which each team in in the same
group played the other teams twice.
Matters reached crunch situation by the time
India met Zimbabwe again for the second match,
at Tunbridge Wells. A defeat here would virtually
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trepidation than hope when the team left for the
small town in Kent County.
Historic contest
Though India had beaten Zimbabwe earlier, the
team was no pushover, boasting several high-
quality players in Duncan Fletcher, John Traicos,
Dave Houghton, and fast bowlers Kevin Curran
and Peter Rawson. In fact, in their first match of
the tournament, Zimbabwe had beaten Australia.
The contest turned out to be historic. To save
money on lodging in Tunbridge Wells, I travelled
there from London (where I had a place) on the
morning of the match. To save even more money,
I took an off-peak ticket, which brought me to the
ground about half an hour after scheduled start.
There was a hush when I walked into Nevill
Ground. The dressing rooms were on the way
from the gate to one of the shamianas that was the
press enclosure for the day. The small ground was
packed, but there wasn’t the clamour one would
associate with an ODI match.
Seeing former India great Gundappa Vishwanath
standing in the porch of the Indian dressing room,
I ventured there to get an update from him on
what was happening in the match.
This would be unthinkable today when players’s
enclosures are so strictly sanitised. But as
mentioned at the start, 1983 was a world apart
from the one we live in, particularly in sport.
I sidled up to Vishy and asked him how the match
was progressing. “All fine, nothing to worry,’’ he
Kapil’s brilliant knock acquired greater sentimental value
as the stock of Indian cricket grew