The greatest ODI knock of all time that was never broadcasted
It was the 9th of June, 1983, exactly the 200th ODI match in history, a very inexperienced Indian batting side scored 262/8 against the mighty West Indies side, who had the most dangerous bowling unit in the history. The Indian media were happy that Indian team batted for entire 60 overs and didn't forfeit! But there was more to this match that would eventually start the world cup campaign for India.
The next day on 10th of June the match continued and the unimaginable had happened that many Indian players were left pinching themselves, and the reason was, they had beaten the West Indies by 34 runs! This sent a message across every team that this Indian team led by a 24-year old Kapil Dev wasn't to be taken lightly in any context.
But exactly 8 days later India found themselves in dire straits as they had been all their life in previous world cups'. Despite the miracle at Manchester, India went onto to find themselves in a position of do-or-die.
On June 18th, 1983, Tunbridge Wells, India played against Zimbabwe, which was a pretty good side at that time. As the match was important, Kapil Dev chose to bat first.
If there was any strength in the Indian side then it was their batting, but much to their own misery they met with a disaster as they found all their top 5 batsmen back in the pavilion with mere 17 runs on the board! The legendary Gavaskar got a duck, Srikanth got a duck, Amarnath got out for 5, Sandeep Patil scored a mere 1 run and Yashpal Sharma managed to score most among them, just 9 runs.
It was 17-5 and in walked a young 24-year Haryana lad who had built a reputation of a being a pinch-hitter( slogger in modern day). He had Roger Binny on the other end when he walked in and slowly but steadily they built a 60-run partnership before Binny got out and the total was 77-6. Ravi Shastri managed to play out 5 balls before getting out to future Indian coach Duncan Fletcher for 1 run.
With other two Indian tailenders being Punjab's Madan Lal and Karnataka's Wicketkeeper batsman Syed Kirmani India might have lost hopes of the world cup which they didn't have in first place, after all, they were there for enjoying the English summer.
But one man was determined and never lost an inch of hope, Kapil Dev on the other end kept scoring briskly, he managed to build a partnership with Madan Lal of 62 runs. With 8 down India had 140 runs on the board thanks to Kapil Dev's batting performance. But the Haryana hurricane didn't seem to have been satisfied with his team' score and at the same time, Kirmani stood his ground till the end with him by scoring a reluctant 24*(56).
By the end of 60th over, the teams on either side and those who had gathered at the ground had witnessed the greatest innings ever played in a 60-over match under unfathomable pressure Kapil Dev played the greatest shorter format innings of his life and the best by an Indian batsman on the world cup stage.
Kapil Dev finished with the astonishing 175*(138) with 16 fours and 6 sixes at a strike-rate of 126.81, which was unheard of at the time. But sadly, it was an innings that never got to see the light of day, since the BBC technical workers had held a strike against the broadcasting company.
As the legend goes, since there were two matches in one day and the BBC had only one equipment that could cover one match so they went ahead with the popularity and they covered the match that featured West Indies.
Who knew that the world would be barred from witnessing the greatest comeback knock in the world cup history.