Where did India first win a one-dayer against the West Indies?
(24 May 2002)
Intuitively, one would think that India would have registered
their first win over the West Indies on the subcontinent, in
familiar conditions. But the victory came in the West Indies' own
homeground of Albion, Berbice.
It was 29 March 1983 when India and the West Indies clashed in
the second of three one-dayers during the 1983 series between the
two sides. India had never beaten the West Indies in the shorter
version of the game previously, and nobody expected the script to
veer towards a different ending in this match either.
Lloyd won the toss and put the Indians in at a ground that had
seen low scores from teams batting first on previous occasions.
In a match shortened to 47 overs, an uncharacteristically
belligerent 90 off 117 balls from the little master Sunil Gavaskar at the top of the order saw India get off to a
rollicking start. It was then the turn of the Indian captain
Kapil Dev to rocket the Indians to a truly imposing score. His
blazing 72 off 38 balls, with seven fours and a six, saw the
tourists rattle up 282 for five. The West Indies were quite
naturally shell-shocked, but they still had a mighty batting
line-up to call upon.
A fine exhibition of seam bowling from Kapil, Madan Lal and
Balwinder Sandhu, however, was to scupper their hopes of victory
on the day. The great opening pair of Gordon Greenidge and
Desmond Haynes were forced to make an early return to the
pavilion. As for the middle order, with the exception of Viv
Richards, who made 64, Sheik Bacchus, who made 52, and Jeff
Dujon, who made an unbeaten 53, none of the others really fired.
This meant that though the West Indies played out the 47 overs to
reach 255 for nine, they were still losers by 27 runs. Their
first win over the West Indies was a major fillip to the Indian
team and portended their coming of age as a one-day team.
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