How can I ever forget those moments? Stepping out to receive the man of the match award ahead of such illustrious cricketers as Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and the most-fearsome pace battery on the West Indies side and people like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Jimmy Amarnath in our team. I was very emotional when I received the award. It was one of the greatest moments in my cricket career; I didn’t wish anything else in life.Although I was part of the Indian team for the 1979 World Cup, I never got a chance to play even a single game. Therefore, I was more than determined to do well when I was picked for the 1983 squad.Manchester, where we played our first game against the West Indies, proved a lucky ground for me. It was there once again that I topscored (61) in the semifinal against the hosts (England). I went No.4 and was out after making 89 off 120 balls, including nine fours, with about four overs remaining. I got out trying to flick Holding.The instructions from Kapil Dev as I went in to bat were to ‘stick around and play till the end.’ At the team meeting prior to the first game, we never talked of beating the ‘invincible’ West Indies but of doing our best.We were never panicky even after being 135 for five. We were confident of our lower-order batting depth, with Kiri, Madan, Shastri and Binny capable of contributing to the total. We finally made 262 for 8 in 60 overs even as the game went on to the second day owing to rain on the first day.I faced Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Vivian Richards and Larry Gomes with confidence, having already batted against them on our tour of the West Indies.And when the West Indies went in for their reply, I got India the initial breakthrough by running out Haynes with a direct throw from extra-cover. Every bowler, including Shastri, Binny and Kirti Azad, bowled well and the West Indies were restricted to 228 runs.For a few moments, we couldn’t believe that we had beaten the West Indies, who till then had remained unbeaten in the previous two editions of the mega event. That victory in the very first game gave us the confidence that we can do better and beat some of the other teams as well.Even then, winning the World Cup was not on our minds yet. We were only keen on giving it a try as we had made a good start. Every member of the squad contributed to the team’s success and that continued till the very last of the competition when we beat the Caribbeans once again to lift the Cup at Lord’s.
