Similarities in two triumphs 24 years apart

NEW DELHI: The two triumphs, 24 years apart, have many similarities.
   
A bunch of young and enthusiastic cricketers led by Kapil Dev surprised the cricket world in 1983 to lift the ODI World Cup at the Lord's. It used to be 60-overs a side match at that time.

Sure, there were big names like Sunil Gavaskar, K Srikkanth, Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar but there were more upcoming and unfancied ones like Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Kirti Azad, Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Yashpal Sharma in the squad.

After being nearly knocked-out of the tournament, the Indians made it to the final on June 25. Gavaskar (2) and Kapil (15) failed but Srikkanth top-scored with 38 in a score of 183, a target within easy grasp of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd.
   
But that was not to be. Amarnath and Madanlal took three wickets each and Sandhu scalped two to knock out the holders from the Caribbean for just 140.
   
The triumph at Johannesburg on Monday by MS Dhoni's unfancied team is remniscent of the big day at Lord's. The team had even lesser known players and was given little chance to reach the semis.

The two Sharmas, Rohit and Joginder, as also Yusuf Pathan, R P Singh, S Sreesanth, Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir had little or no experience of playing at the world Cup level.

They supplimented the more experienced Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Dhoni.