Five greatest cricket World Cup finals in history

1. 1983 World Cup final (Lord’s Cricket Ground, London)

Billed as a ‘David vs Goliath’ contest, underdogs India had progressed to the final of the World Cup for the first time. The West Indies team were making their third appearance, having won the previous two editions, and were firm favourites to complete a hat-trick of titles.

Clive Lloyd won the toss and invited India to bat first. The fearsome four-pronged pace battery of Roberts, Garner, Marshall and Holding ripped through the batting line-up, and Larry Gomes also joined the party by bagging two wickets. India’s only pieces of resistance came from Krishnamachari Srikkanth (38), Sandeep Patil (27), all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath (26) and seamer Madan Lal (17), as they crumbled to 183 all out.

The Windies received their first shocker when opener Gordon Greenidge (1) shouldered arms to an in-swinging delivery from Balwinder Sandhu; the ball curled in and clipped the top of off-stump. Nine more to go.

But any fears of a possible upset were, for a brief while, allayed by the mastery of Viv Richards. He effortlessly dispatched the bowlers into the fence, and his buccaneering ways took his side to 57/2.

However, captain Kapil Dev took a blinder of a catch running backwards towards mid-wicket after the King mistimed a hook off Madan Lal. The Caribbean supporters were shocked into sepulchral silence; their hero had fallen.

It went downhill from there – Madan and Binny then ran through the rest of the batting, while Kapil knocked over Roberts. Amarnath, who had earlier removed Marshall, trapped Holding LBW to send the champions hurtling towards a 43-run defeat.

The unthinkable had occurred. The mighty Calypso Kings had fallen. 1983 became the year of the underdog with India’s superb victory – a feat replicated 28 years later by Dhoni’s men. For sheer cricketing brilliance, this one tops the list of the greatest WC finals in the history of cricket!