There were no expectations from Kapil's Devils, who started out as a bunch of no-hopers, having won just one match against lowly East Africa in the previous two World Cups in 1975 and 1979.. India was placed in Group B along with favorites, West Indies, Australia and the ICC Trophy Champions, Zimbabwe.

INDIA IN THE FIRST LEG            

INDIA'S FIRST MATCH AGAINST THE WEST INDIES     

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The first match for India was against the previous two world cup winners, the mighty West Indies. The match got off to a delayed start ,thanks to the rain. West Indies won the toss and invited India to bat. India managed its first really decent total of the competition, Yashpal Sharma (89 off 120) leading the way with the likes of Roger Binny and Madan Lal contributing useful runs in the lower order after the top batsmen had failed to do much of substance. The West Indies reply was a precursor to the drama of the final -- Balwinder Sandu's banana swing deceived Gordon Greenidge, and some superb ground fielding accounted for Desmond Haynes to reduce the chasing side to 56/2 when stumps were drawn for the day.

On resumption the next morning, skipper Kapil Dev went flat out on the attack -- and wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani produced the goods when he snaffled a magnificent catch to send back Vivian Richards off Binny for just 17. Bacchus, Lloyd, Dujon, Gomes and Marshall went cheap, and only a fighting last wicket stand of 71 between Roberts and Garner saved the two-time champions the blushes. It was not enough, though, to prevent India from sealing a 34-run win -- the first defeat for the West Indies in all World Cup matches till date. India's performance was completely unexpected from a side that had merely made up the numbers in the first two Cups -- but connoisseurs nodded wisely and poinnted to the fact that in March that year, India had produced its first ever one-day win over the West Indies, at the St Albion Grounds in Berbice, Guyana.

That win was a turning point for a side that till then had been cricket's no-hopers, for it gave the Indians the realization that they, too, could compete in this form of the game.

INDIA VS ZIMBABWE 

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India, with two wins in two tries, took on Australia with two defeats in two outings. Sunny Gavaskar, whose contributions had been 19 off 44 and 4 off 11 in the first two games, was rested (this, obviously, was an era wherein performance, not personality, still dictated team selection to an extent).

Australia won the toss and decided to bat. India decided not to field. Putting up perhaps the most pathetic fielding display ever by an Indian side in World Cup matches, the Indians allowed Australia to plunder 320/9 in the allotted 60 overs. The injured Greg Chappell was sitting out this game, but Trevor, the youngest of the Chappells, came in as opener and managed 110 off 131 balls, with the benefit of two lives. In fact, it is hard to think of an Australian batsman who did not get a life and/or gift runs. India managed, in reply, a mere 158 all out in 37.5 overs, coming to grief against Ken MacLeay (6 for 39). MacLeay was in fact responsible for triggering the slide, as India slumped -- in a fashion the team has patented, and still monopolizes, from 38/1 to 57/4 and 66/6. The only Indian player who came out of the game with self-respect intact was skipper Kapil Dev, who followed up his 5/43 with the ball with a typical 40 off just 27 in a losing cause with the bat. The margin of defeat was 162 runs.

INDIA VS AUSTRALIA   

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For India, the World Cup turned almost into a Test match, as it found itself playing on three consecutive days. After the long-drawn match against the Windies on 9^th and 10^th, it turned up on June 11 to play -- and defeat -- Zimbabwe with ease, Madan Lal and Roger Binny starring with the ball as the Indians bundled Zimbabwe out for 155, before Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil led a batting effort that saw India overhaul the target in the 38^th over with five wickets in hand.

The second successive win underscored some of the latent strengths in the side -- allrounders Madan Lal, Roger Binny and Ravi Shastri were time and again producing tight spells and taking wickets in the middle, while Mohinder Amarnath's controlled bowling was the icing on a batsmanship that saw Windies skipper Clive Lloyd rate him, just a day earlier, as the best player of fast bowling in the world.

INDIA IN THE SECOND LEG

INDIA'S SECOND OUTING AGAINST WINDIES

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West Indies and India with two wins each met again on a  track of variable bounce at the Kennington Oval and this time the West Indies came out on top. Greenidge was out early, but Richards starred in successive partnerships of 101 for the second wicket with Haynes and 80 for the third wicket with Clive Lloyd . Six of the seven batsmen who followed managed only single digit scores, but Richards' innings, a solid  119 off 146 powered the side to 282/9 in 60 overs.

India in reply lost both openers cheap (Gavaskar continued to be rested) before Mohinder Amarnath (80 off 139) and Dilip Vengsarkar (32 off 59) combined in a 109-run stand for the third wicket. Vengsarkar however retired hurt after taking a Marshall express on the face, and only Kapil Dev (36/46) managed any resistance as India folded for 216 against the near-unplayable pace of Roberts (2/29), Holding (3/40) and Marshall (1/20 in 11 overs).

INDIA VS ZIMBABWE 

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The game of the round was the India versus Zimbabwe encounter at Tunbridge Wells -- a game that, thanks to a strike by the BBC, was never recorded on video. India batted first and Gavaskar, returning to the top of the batting order, made 0 off 2. Srikkanth (0 off 13), Amarnath (5 off 20), Sandeep Patil (1 off 10) and Yashpal Sharma (9 off 28) were the other culprits in a batting collapse that saw India slump to 17/5.

Kapil Dev, who time and again in the tournament had excelled with bat and ball, chose the occasion to produce one of the best innings ever seen in World Cup competition. Treating the Zimbabwe bowling with utter contempt, the Indian captain slammed a magnificent 175 off just 138 balls, studded with 16 fours and six sixes. The excellence of this knock is lost to posterity, but its magnitude is preserved in figures: Kapil Dev's 175 came in a total of 266, in which the second highest scorer was Syed Kirmani (unbeaten 24/56) and only Roger Binny (22 off 48) and Madan Lal (17 off 39) managed double figures. The 8^th wicket, that of Madan Lal, fell at the score of 140. The unbeaten ninth wicket partnership made 126 -- and Kirmani's contribution was a mere 24. The innings run rate was 4.43 -- whereas Kapil was scoring at well over a run a ball.

It was, simply put, the mother of all one-man shows.

Kapil had enough energy left to lead the bowling, with an 11-over spell that produced a mere 32 runs for one wicket. The Indian medium pacers, fired up by their inspirational captain who challenged them to play out of their skins, choked the Zimbabweans down in the middle overs (Amarnath 1/37 in 12, Madan Lal 3/42 in 11, Binny 2/45 in 11) and bundled them out for 235 to seal a 31-run win that kept alive their hopes of a semifinal berth. Only Kevin Curran, 73 off 93 balls, offered any sort of resistance.

INDIA VS AUSTRALIA

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The India versus Australia encounter at Chelmsford was equally crucial for the semifinal prospects of both teams. Batting first, India turned in a weird performance -- barring number one Sunny Gavaskar (9 off 10) and number 11 Balwinder Sandhu (8 off 18), every other batsman made double figures, and five of them in fact went past 20. Yet, with the batsmen throwing their wickets away in self-destructive fashion, only Yashpal Sharma (40/40) managed to outscore Extras (37, thanks to an undisciplined effort by the Australians that produced 15 no-balls and 9 wides).

Australia's reply is one a proud sporting nation would have been glad to forget. The fall of wickets in fact tells the tale: 1/3, 2/46, 3/48, 4/52, 5/52, 6/69 -- the chasing side was never, ever in the hunt against steady, disciplined seam bowling led by Madan Lal (4/20), Roger Binny (4/29) and Balwinder Sandhu (2/26), and in the end lost by the huge margin of 118 runs to put India into the semis.

INDIA IN THE SEMI-FINALS

INDIA VS ENGLAND

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England -- which had won five of six league games by enormous margins --- was, quite simply, blind-sided. A day before the semifinal, the overconfident hosts -- with the likes of Geoff Boycott and Ray Illingworth leading the way --- were talking of strategy and tactics to be used in the final.

Batting first on winning the toss, Graeme Fowler and Chris Tavare put on a steady opening stand of 69 -- but the signs were already there, as India fielded in tigerish fashion, choking down the runs while the bowlers stuck to line and length. The results of this approach became visible as the England innings progressed -- stroke-players of the order of the in-form David Gower (17 off 30), Allan Lamb (29 off 58), Gatting (18 off 46) and Botham (6 off 26) were completely shut down as India's support bowlers Roger Binny (2/43 in 12), Madan Lal (0/15 in 5) and Mohinder Amarnath (2/27 in 12) used overcast conditions and their own discipline to strangle the batting side, reducing them from 106/2 at one point to a paltry 213 all out.

Kapil Dev's name never comes up in any list of cricket strategists, but in this game, he was firing on all cylinders both with his field placement, which he tailored to the batsmen concerned, and with his bowling changes -- and nothing so symbolized the latter as his decision to give Kirti Azad a go at Ian Botham. Azad had bowled just two overs in six matches leading up to that point. Here, responding to his captain's call, he produced a spell of 12-1-28-1 that first strangled, then took out England's most dangerous middle order batsman.

England lost its last wicket off the last ball of the innings -- and ended up with a paltry 213. An unussual pointer to the kind of bowling and fielding India produced on the day was in the fact that the fastest innings in the England knock was played by Chris Tavare, that blocker extraordinaire, who took a mere 51 balls for his 32, and ended up as second highest scorer behind opening partner Fowler (33 off 59). Kapil Dev (3/35 in 11) was the most successful bowler, but it was the medium pacers who really turned up trumps.

The chase was clinical in its efficiency. Gavaskar and Srikkanth put on 41 for the first wicket with the former stroking fluently to make 25 off 41 deliveries. Mohinder Amarnath at number three focused on shutting one end down (46 off 92). Yashpal Sharma (61/115) produced, with Mohinder, an exhibition of running between wickets that had the fielding side in disarray.

And the last nail was hammered in when skipper Bob Willis decided to bring himself back into the attack, against Sandeep Patil who, a year earlier on the very same ground, had slammed a spectacular 129 off 196 balls in the second Test of the series, including a savage assault on Willis that saw him blast six boundaries in an over.

Willis came on, Sandeep Patil tucked in and by the time the mayhem was over, 'Sandy' had slammed 51 off just 32 balls, and powered India to a win with six wickets, and 5.2 overs, to spare.

Even as England supporters in the stands, upset at what to them was a shock result, took on Indian fans in a bout of fisticuffs, vice-captain David Gower was giving credit where it was due: "India have learnt the value of fielding in the one-day game," he said after the match. "Team work, and Kapil's captaincy, has made this a dangerous side."

Wisdom had dawned -- a bit too late to keep India, bottom of the table in the first two Cups, from strolling into the finals with unsuspected ease.