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The Mecca of Cricket, Lords was a fitting place for the mother of all title fights. The sun was shining bright. Most thought that the sunshine was for the WINDIES who were going to beat the daylight out of India. The contest was billed as David vs. Goliath. No guesses for who is Goliath. West Indies would win hands down. Just look at the WINDIES. C. G. Greenidge and D. L. Haynes were the best opening pair in the business. They were followed by the one and only Vivian Richards aka King Richards and the only and only Clive Lloyd aka Panther Llyod. These two would be enough for best teams break into a cold sweat. Logically, a combination of any of the top four players should have helped the West Indies beat the daylights out of India. Forget Larry Gomes, S. F. Bacchus and Jeff Dujon. But move further down and you will spot four more reasons for any rival team wanting to take the next flight to safety. Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Michael Holding are names that are taken with respect by batsmen who have never had the misfortune to face them.

So the question of everyone’s mind would be--- How did David (INDIA) dare even dream about winning? Just look at the Indian team. And hey I’m not trying to insult the team or anything. But just look at the team line-up. Sunil Gavaskar could never comprehend the basics of the one-day game. Just mention the 36 he made in a 60-over World Cup game, without losing his wicket, to make him want to hide behind a fig leaf. Imagine the bits and pieces strength of a team in which Syed Kirmani came at number 10. Mind you he was no bunny with the bat. As for bowling, take away Kapil Dev and you would wonder what the rest of them were doing on a cricket field. Kapil, one of the best all-rounders of his era, had at his disposal Mohinder Amarnath, Madan Lal and Roger Binny who were capable of chipping in with both bat and ball. “Bits and pieces players” was an apt tag for most of the team. Kapil's XI had together played 288 ODIs before the Prudential Cup finals; Sourav's XII (not counting Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Bangar and Parthiv Patel) have played 1,617; Sachin alone 313 before going into the World Cup 2003 finals.The current 12 (including Anil Kumble) has a grand total of 35,030 career runs as against 5,164 runs scored by Kapil's men going into the 1983 finals. And as against 1,125 wickets, the superstars of yore had 167 wickets on the morning of 25-6-83. Take a look at the statistics of each 1983 star going into the finals. Nothing extraordinary.

 Still…

 Still these bits-and pieces players dared to dream. And delivered when it mattered the most.

None in the host country thought much of an India versus West Indies final, which they deemed so one-sided that Englishmen who had bought their tickets in advance stood outside the gates, hoping to sell them to West Indian and Indian supporters, for reduced rates if need be.

Apparently, few if any were willing to listen to India's inspirational skipper Kapil Dev, who the evening before the match responded to questions about his team's underdog status against the two-time champions with a curt "Don't write us off!"

Captain Clive Lloyd won toss and decided to put India to bat looking to exploit early life on the track, opted to bowl. Everything was going according to the Script. The fearsome foursome of the West Indies between them sent the Indians packing for a paltry 183.

But the second part of script went haywire. It was not David's skill but Goliath's grossly wrong assessment of the capability of the puny little boy in front of him that caused the Biblical upset. Greenidge and Haynes and Richards and Lloyd walked in with disdain and walked out of the ground looking like lost kids. Kapil's Devils had knocked the stuffing out of the feared batting line-up of Lloyd's boys.

Lloyd's realistic dream of lifting the cup that cheers the most in international for a record third time fell short of the modest Indian target of 183 by just 44 runs. It is a sin to be caught napping. And this was the sin the cocky charmers from the Caribbean committed that fateful day at the Lord's and paid a heavy price for it. They were literally caught napping.

But give the devil his due. And Kapil's Devil another round of applause for making the average Indian start believing in the Indian team. Give me those bits-and-pieces players any day I will place my bet once again on India. The fancy averages of the present Indian batsmen don't impress me one bit. Not one player in Kapil's team had an average touching 40. But they had hunger. They had the spirit and the self-belief to beat the best in the game. And they did it with remarkable ease.