We had already done the impossible by reaching the final of the World Cup. The Indian dressing room was bubbling with activity. Traditionally, in England, outsiders are not allowed into the players' dressing room. In India it is free for all, especially the Indian dressing room. And on this day, the Indian dressing room at Lord's had the atmosphere of the Indian version.

There were quite a few supporters of ours in the dressing room and I did not have the heart to tell them to leave us alone. They had been with us throughout the tournament and to tell them to go at the final was something I could not stomach. However, slowly, most of them understood the situation and left.

For a split second there was a deathly silence in the room as if everything had come to a stand still. A few moments later we saw Clive Lloyd, captain of the West Indian team (holders), and Kapil Dev, captain of the Indian team (underdogs), walking out to toss. For the third time in three matches against the West Indies in this tournament, Kapil lost and Clive chose to field. We had retained the winning team of the semi-final at Old Trafford against England.

I could see the disappointment on the faces of both Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri at not being in the XI. Of course, Valson was jovial as ever, enjoying his stint as 12th man throughout the tournament. Probably, his was the only place that seemed to be permanent.

Knowing Gavaskar for so many years, I was aware that he does not like to be wished good luck before he goes in to bat. I just went up to him asked if everything was okay. He replied that all was fine. I said a quiet prayer that he would come good that day -- for India's sake. A good start against the West Indies was a must if we were to put up a fight. Srikkanth, being what he is, he always plays his natural game; I wished him all the best and waited for the match to start.

Roberts marked his run-up at the Nursery end for the first over. Nothing exciting happened. But, when Garner started his over from the pavilion end, he posed all sorts of problems to Gavaskar. I just could not believe my eyes. The great Gavaskar was not able to handle Garner. Thank God nothing happened in that over. I thought Dame Luck was smiling on us and nothing would happen for a while and walked down the pavilion to buy some commemorative stamps, which had been brought out on the occasion. By the time I reached the counter, I was told that they had been all sold out. Disappointed, I was returning to the dressing room, when I bumped into Asif Iqbal, who had Ifthiqaruddin for company.

'Ifti' was an old Hyderabad mate and had played for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy before migrating to the USA. I was meeting 'Ifti' after ages and it was such a pleasure. He was happy too and congratulated me on being the manager of the Indian team. While we were chatting, I heard a big roar and it was obvious that one of our batsmen was out, and it happened to be Gavaskar. I immediately rushed back to the dressing room.

Slowly but steadily, Srikkanth and Amarnath were building up the innings and they had the best partnership of the match. I for one felt that some of our batsmen got out to rash shots especially when Gomes came on to bowl. It was as if our batsmen were in a hurry to make the best of Gomes's bowling. Our most consistent batsman, Yashpal Sharma, got out to a shot which I don't think he would have played under normal circumstances. And soon after lunch Kapil was also out, trying to hit Gomes out of sight and was caught on the long on boundary. Gomes, being used as the fifth bowler, became a success with two vital wickets. Kirti Azad and Binny did little of note and it was the last-wicket pair of Kirmani and Sandhu, who gave some respectability to our total that was ultimately 183. We were all out in 54.4 overs, thereby not even playing the allotted number of 60 overs.

Just before going out to field, Kapil got the boys together and said that it would be futile to play defensively, that is trying to restrict the West Indies from scoring. The only alternative was to attack and try to get them out. That was our only way of winning the game, if at all we had a chance. Everyone agreed and in a positive frame of mind the Indian team took the field.

The holders started on a sedate note. There was no flurry of strokes and then suddenly the most unbelievable thing happened. An experienced opener like Gordon Greenidge let go a ball from Sandhu, shouldering arms to a ball that came in sharply and knocked back his off-stump. There was a big roar in the crowd and I felt luck at last was really beginning to favour us.

In walked 'King' Richards, as majestic as ever. Confidence, nay arrogance, was written all over his face. Straightaway, he started hitting he ball all over the ground. It was as if Richards wanted to finish the game in a hurry and go home. It reminded me of the Test match at the Brabourne stadium way back in 1966, with great Chandrashekar in full cry and both Gary Sobers and Clive Lloyd (debutant in that Test) went mad and hit the Indian bowlers all over, particularly Bapu Nadkarni, to finish the match in a hurry and then rushed to the Mahalaxmi racecourse. The way Richards was going, it was to a good to last and it all ended with Kapil taking a fantastic catch at mid-wicket.

Next came captain Clive Lloyd, who while taking his very first run, pulled his leg muscle. He fell soon to a loose shot and suddenly the mighty West Indies was 76-6. The Indians fought hard and luck was favouring the brave. Jeff Dujon and Malcolm Marshall were at the crease now for the seventh wicket and were playing quite comfortably. It was not that we relaxed, but it so happened that Dujon and Marshall batted well. Sensing victory was not far away, the president and secretary along with some other members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India came into the dressing room. As the seventh wicket partnership was developing, I became a bit superstitious and felt that their dressing room presence was proving far from lucky for us. But I could not ask them to leave. One of our reserve players also came and told me that the presence of Board officials was not helping the Indian cause and that I should ask them to leave. I just could not help matters, though I was boiling within myself.

Then some of the officials left the dressing room, and on the field Kapil brought Mohinder Amarnath on to bowl. He immediately broke the partnership and we were on our way to the historic win. Once Holding was declared LBW to Amarnath, the Indian players rushed from the field into the dressing room jubilant and our joy knew no bounds. Kirti and I embraced each other and cried and cried. We were the World champions.

The mighty West Indians had been dismissed for only 140 and our margin of win by 43 runs seemed to be a big one by limited-over standards. Our dressing room at Lord's that evening was the scene of utter chaos. All sorts of people were there, shouting and celebrating. Our supporters had already arranged for a huge quantity of champagne and corks started to pop. The Indians who were at Lord's swarmed the ground and were shouting for the team to appear on the balcony of the dressing room, Kapil obliged and began showering champagne on the crowd.

Our bowlers had done the job. They had bowled a tantalizing length. None of them tried to overdo the pace stuff even in conditions in which there was always some seam movement to be had. The words of Hookes came back to me. Our bowlers are too slow. Timing becomes more difficult when that kind of medium pace is bowled in English conditions. Let the ball wobble a bit in the air and move a bit off the seam and it is never easy for the batsmen to strike it where he wishes.

A batsman like Richards saw the ball early and hit it where he wanted. The others were not that talented and Lloyds was handicapped by his leg muscle. The amazing catch by Kapil had helped turn the tide though Kapil sportingly acknowledged that it was Lloyd's dismissal that helped us believe we had got through and that only the finishing touch needed to be applied.

Extract from: Victory Insight

Published by: Theodore Braganza for The Marine Sports