INDIA AT THE CRICKET WORLD CUP - 2 - ANSWERS

 1. B. East Africa

 

India's first win in World Cup came in the inaugural edition of the World Cup in 1975 where it competed in Group A against England, New Zealand and East Africa, a team of cricketers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Led  by off-spinner Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, India had a disastrous start as it lost the inaugural match against host England by a huge margin of 202 runs at Lord's.

 

(Sunil Gavaskar)

(Farokh Engineer)

India next played against East Africa at Headingley in Leeds and as expected, won the match, thanks to disciplined bowling from medium pacer Madan Lal (3/15) which restricted East Africa to 120. In the chase, Gavaskar made amends for his atrocious innings against England with a fine half-century (65 not out from 86 balls, 9 fours). Supported by Farokh Engineer (54 not out from 93 balls, 7 fours), the duo hammered the amateurish East African bowling and steered India to a facile victory without losing a wicket.

2. B. VCA Ground, Nagpur

In its last match in Group stage of the 1987 World Cup, held at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur, India needed a big win over New Zealand in order to finish ahead of Australia and secure a home semi-final at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay (the other Semi-final was held at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore).

 

Batting first after winning the toss, the Kiwis were relatively comfortable at 182 for 5 in the 42nd over before Chetan Sharma, the right arm Fast bowler registered the first ever World Cup hat-trick (only the third bowler in the world and first Indian to take a hat-trick in the One Day Internationals), as he accounted for Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield with the last three balls of his sixth over (all clean-bowled) thus restricting Kiwis at 221.

 

India needed to chase the target in 42.2 overs for the home Semifinal, but thanks to some sensational batting from Kris Srikanth (75 from 58 balls) and Sunil Gavaskar (103* from 88 balls - his first and only century in ODIs ), they reached the target in just 32.1 overs with 9 wickets in hand.   

3. B. Kapil Dev

 

In the 1992 World Cup, India after losing its first match in the Round-Robin stage against England by a close margin of 9 runs, played its second match against Sri Lanka in search of a win. Heavy rain before the start of the match delayed the toss and finally when the match started (Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to field in overcast conditions) the overs were reduced to 20 overs per innings.

 

India for a change decided send Kapil Dev as pinch-hitting opener with Krishnamachari Srikkanth instead of Ravi Shastri, the opener in the last match. But the rain played havoc again with just two balls being bowled (both faced by K. Srikkanth) and could not be resumed again.

 

The abandoned match put India under tremendous pressure as India was favorite to win the match against a relatively weak Sri Lanka then. Ajay Jadeja, the prolific batsman made his debut in that rain-marred match.

4. A. Kiran More

In the 1992 Benson & Hedges World Cup, India faced arch-rival Pakistan in its fourth Round-Robin stage match looking for the maiden win in the Tournament. Batting first after winning the toss at Sydney in a day-night match, India set a target of 217 for Pakistan in 49 overs (1 over reduced due to rain delay). In reply, Pakistan seemed to lose the plot with Inzamam ul Haq and Zahid Fazal being dismissed with just 17 runs on the board. Javed Miandad was the fourth man in and tried his best to stitch a crucial partnership with opener Aamer Sohail.

 

But the Indian bowlers were economical and the pressure was building. At the halfway stage, Pakistan were at 85/2. Then the young Sachin Tendulkar who was bowling sent one down the leg side. Miandad tried to play at it but it went through to Kiran More behind the stumps. More appealed long and loud, but the umpire waved it away. Miandad wasn’t pleased with the intense appeal and exchanged some words with the Indian wicketkeeper. The Pakistan batsman then complained to umpire David Shephard, but More didn’t back down. In the same over, More removed the bails in an attempted run-out despite Miandad being well inside the crease.

 

But this time Miandad went first. Clutching his bat in both hands, he jumped up and down while shouting animatedly. More, on the other hand, remained calm. It may not have been the best advertisement for the gentleman’s game but remains an iconic moment from the many India-Pakistan matches that followed.

5. A. Duncan Fletcher

Duncan Fletcher, the former Zimbabwean cricketer was appointed coach of the India national cricket team on 27 April 2011 with an initial two-year contract after departure of Gary Kirsten (reportedly upon Kirsten's recommendation) ahead of names like former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming and former Zimbabwe skipper Andy Flower. Under Fletcher's coaching, the Indian national team achieved 8 series victories in a row; including the Champions Trophy in 2013. In 2013, his contract was renewed for another two years up to the 2015 World Cup.

(Fletcher, the south-paw, in 1983 World Cup)

Fletcher, who never played Test Cricket (Zimbabwe got Test status in 1992) but took Zimbabwe to victory in the 1982 ICC Trophy (Zimbabwe qualified to play in the 1983 World Cup), had earlier coached the England cricket team from 1999–2007 and is credited with the resurgence of the England team in Test cricket in the early 2000s.

 

In the 2015 World Cup co-hosted by Australia and England, India as the defending Champions were billed pre-tournament favourites and also had familiarity with the conditions Down Under with an Australian tour preceding the event. Though for the first time ever in a Cricket World Cup, India finished the Group stage unbeaten, it lost out to Australia, the eventual Champions  in the Semi Final (their only loss in the Tournament). Many positives emerged from the tournament from an Indian point of view including barring the semifinal, the Indian team bowled out the opposition in every match, a remarkable feat for a bowling attack traditionally considered to be weaker than the batting; but Duncan Fletcher did not seek for a renewal and his glorious stint as Indian Coach came to an end with the Tournament.