Memonics

It’s 25 years to the day since Kapil Dev made his amazing 175 not out against Zimbabwe at the picturesque Tunbridge Wells ground, but I’ve had no reason to believe that there has been a better one-day hundred since, or indeed earlier, by any player from any country.
 
Time neither dulled its appeal or dimmed its impact. A whopping 940 ODI hundreds have been scored yet, many of them forgettable, only a few memorable, with this knock (at least in my reckoning) at the apex. It’s not that better batsmen than Kapil have not been seen, or some other innings were not better crafted, but I believe no other innings had had quite the same effect. Kapil was to redefine not only the destiny of the 1983 World Cup, but also Indian cricket. This was not just another batting exploit, it was a catharsis. The game would just not be the same again.

In saying all this I must admit to being wholly partisan and somewhat melodramatic, but having been an eyewitness to the innings, I take such liberties without compunction. To see Kapil bat the way he did that dank June day was to not only warm the cockles of any Indian, but send high-voltage currents down the spine of any cricket-lover.

“Show me a better knock for panache, difficulty quotient, quantum of runs, daredevilry, and result?’’ I have asked anybody who has chosen to contest my preference, without ever receiving a convincing answer. No doubt there have been some extraordinary innings played in limited overs cricket, and I list four in the box alongside which I think could offer competition to Kapil’s 175. Yet none competes with what I saw on June 18, 1983 at Tunbridge Wells.

Occasionally, I am told that since these runs came against Zimbabwe, the value of the innings stands diminished. My reply to this balderdash is a mouthful of unmentionables. Such guys don’t know their cricket. Zimbabwe in 1983, were a doughty team, and had beaten Australia too in a league game earlier. If anything, India looked the weaker in one-day experience and confidence. 

More pertinent, however, is the ‘when and how’ of this innings. Consider the excruciating circumstances in which these runs were scored, and the grit and genius of Kapil become evident. When he walked out to bat, India had lost four wickets for nine runs. Shortly, this was to become 17 for five, and it appeared that the batting team would struggle to reach even 50 on a seaming track. Spectators were cluck-clucking in disappointment, and I reckon even the Indian dressing room had given up.

Kapil Dev, however, had other ideas. Two of his tail-end colleagues bought into their captain’s idea to support him stoutly, and what transpired thereafter could only be described as ‘magical realism’. By the time the Indian innings had ended, not just small Tunbridge Wells, but all of England and India had come alive to a historic feat as Kapil turned the game around with a bout of audacious strokeplay that memory can never erase.

Incredibly, there is no televised evidence of Kapil’s knock because the British Broadcasting Corporation happened to be on strike that fateful day. But believe me there has never been a better one-day innings. I was there!