‘I knew Kapil would take the catch’

But Lal says he was enjoying the duel and wanted one more over. “Richards was after my life, but I asked Kapil to give me one more over. I was hoping he would perish in his recklessness. He was hitting all my good-length deliveries, so I bowled one short and quick,” he says.

Madan Lal picked two other wickets that day — Desmond Haynes early in the piece and Larry Gomes later in the game. “Haynes’s wicket triggered the collapse. But the one that got Gomes was my best ball of the tournament. It was going away from the left-hander and Sunny (Gavaskar) took the catch at slip. I believe any batsman would have edged that delivery,” he says.

After the win

That victory at Lord’s changed the face of cricket in the country. It also brought with it cheques the size they hadn’t seen before.

“We got about Rs One lakh each apart from the prize money. It was a big amount for me. Financially, my career was not very secure until then. But it was my determination to excel in the game that drove me. Money was never my inspiration,” he says.

So how did he use that ‘hefty’ sum? “The governer had allotted a DDA flat for me in Kalkaji. I could buy that as the money I received could be used to start paying the installments!”