Men's Cricket World Cup 1983 – Overview

**Dates:**9 June to 25 June 1983

**Locations:**England and Wales

**Number of teams:**8

Overs per innings: 60

**Number of matches:**27

**Format:**Teams were divided into two groups of four. Each team played the other three teams in their group twice with the top two from both groups advancing to the semi-finals.

**Semi-finals:**Both India and West Indies progressed to the final with relative ease. In the first semi-final in Manchester, India restricted England to 213 from their 60 overs and chased it down with 32 balls to spare and six wickets in hand. Sandeep Patil added extra impetus to the run chase, hitting 51 off just 32 balls.

West Indies' route to the final was even simpler. In their semi-final against Pakistan, with their fearsome bowling attack they kept their opponents down to a score of just 184/8 from their 60 overs. They reached the target with 11.2 overs remaining, Viv Richards' 80 not out making light work of the Pakistan total.

**Final:**In a memorable final, India defended 183 to an end an era of West Indian ICC Cricket World Cup dominance. On 57/2 and with Viv Richards at the crease, a third consecutive World Cup triumph looked inevitable for West Indies.

The turning point in the game was Indian captain Kapil Dev's iconic catch to dismiss Richards. Richards, attempting to pull the ball over the in-field towards the leg-side boundary was superbly caught by Dev who took the ball over his shoulder. From that point on, India took regular wickets and eventually bowled West Indies out for 140 to secure their first World Cup title.

**Top run-scorer:**David Gower – 384 runs

**Top wicket-taker:**Roger Binny – 18 wickets