Remembering India's first ever World Cup win in 1983, this day 35 years ago

Trevor Chappell enroute in blistering 100

India's Game #3: vs Australia, Group Stage

Four days after defeating Zimbabwe, India has a tough opposition in Allan Border's Australia. The Aussie side, despite labelled "the worst side ever to leave Australian shores" for a World Cup, carried a lot of big names like the captain himself, apart from the likes of Trevor Chappell, Kepler Wessels, Rod Marsh, and so on. And the Indians were soon to find out the power of the Kangaroos.

Border won the toss and decided to bat first, and the Aussie side put up a humongous 320/9 in the scoreboard, in 60 overs. In these days of powerplays, field-restrictions and new balls, the total seems very feasible, but not in those days. It was a match half-won by Australia already.

Trevor Chappell led the Aussie batting attack, scoring 110 off 131 balls, including 11 fours. Kim Hughes (51 off 86) and Graham Yallop (66 not out off 73) were the other chief contributors. Every Indian bowler except Kapil Dev got punished severely. Kapil returned with impressive figures of 42/5 in his 12 overs. After making an impact early in the game, taking the wicket of Kepler Wessels, he came back in the end and ran through the Australian lower order, picking up four more.

The Indian batting was a complete contrast to that of their counterparts. They were more like the Zimbabwe from their last game, with batsmen falling like bowling pins to a lethal bowling attack from the Aussies. Kris Srikanth and Kapil Dev, who scored 39 and 40 respectively, were the only two batsmen who offered little resistance, as in the end the Indians were all-out for 158, with the Aussies winning by a bigger margin than the Indian scoreline. Ken MacLeay cleaned up the Indians with his spell of 6 for 39 in 11.5 overs, while Trevor Chappell was named the man of the match for his ton.