1987 WC semi-final

[Lurker]

True? But semis were in Mumbai were Sachin was ball boy.

Sachin was ball boy in finals. This was of course when he was studying at the school run by Mother Teresa. Leander Paes and Utpal chatterjee were his buddies

[deathmonger]

Sachin was ball boy in finals. This was of course when he was studying at the school run by Mother Teresa. Leander Paes and Utpal chatterjee were his buddies

:finger: final was in kolkata

[saneindian]

Vengsarkar sat out with a stomach bug, Gooch kept sweeping ith our team having no clue on how to stop him and then Gavaskar was bowled, TV was switched off :((

[carnish]

Sachin was ball boy in finals. This was of course when he was studying at the school run by Mother Teresa. Leander Paes and Utpal chatterjee were his buddies

biggest troll ever .. stop spamming

[Khalpat]

I remember the match for one thing, we all were discussing the first time a sentence like "Lagta hai Paisa khaya hai". First 10 overs England were like 21/0. good first spell from Kapil and Prabhakar. We got two wickets also early but then came the partnership of Gatting and Gooch, man they were sweeping every ball. The same sweep shot in the bowling of Maninder and Shastri same area the ball was going and yet no fielders at fine leg. They liteally murdered both spinners very poor bowling and very poor captaincy in the middle overs. During last overs Kapil bowled really well not only stopped the run flow but also took couple of wickets. Azharudin played a great knock, he and Kapil were taking India smoothly towards target suddenly Kapil Paaji played a Afridisque shot and everything was over.

[Raghav_12]

There was rumour that Bombay group didn't perform deliberately as they didn't like Kapil as captain. There were suggestions that Vengsarkar feigned illness to avoid playing in the match.

[Ultimate_Game]

There was rumour that Bombay group didn't perform deliberately as they didn't like Kapil as captain. There were suggestions that Vengsarkar feigned illness to avoid playing in the match.

How do you explain that Kapil himself didn't help himself by imploding when we only needed 52 off 10 overs with 5 wkts in hand :facepalm:

[vvvslaxman]

There was rumour that Bombay group didn't perform deliberately as they didn't like Kapil as captain. There were suggestions that Vengsarkar feigned illness to avoid playing in the match.

No. Rumour was Sunny underperformed because he always had a dislike for Kolkatta crowd since Kapil was dropped for Kolkatta test against England. It was far fetched considering one man especially sunny could not change the outcome of the match.

[The Outsider]

There was rumour that Bombay group didn't perform deliberately as they didn't like Kapil as captain. There were suggestions that Vengsarkar feigned illness to avoid playing in the match.

Yeah. There were rumors that the Bombay group had thrown the match. Vengsarkar sitting out, Gavaskar getting out for a low score, and Shastri running down the pitch to block the ball back to the bowlers.

How do you explain that Kapil himself didn't help himself by imploding when we only needed 52 off 10 overs with 5 wkts in hand :facepalm:

When Kapil walked in 120+ runs were needed at around 6 RPO with no other specialist batsman to follow. That was not an easy chase in those days and the wicket wasn't the best for shot making. It was due to Kapil's 30 off 22 deliveries that the target came down and Kapil was out much before the 9 overs and 51 runs equation you are talking about. Yeah, Kapil played a stupid shot when the mid wicket had just been moved there - he later said he did not notice it being moved - and was sacked from captaincy because of it, but the run equation had come down into control because of his innings.

[Raghav_12]

How do you explain that Kapil himself didn't help himself by imploding when we only needed 52 off 10 overs with 5 wkts in hand :facepalm:

No. Rumour was Sunny underperformed because he always had a dislike for Kolkatta crowd since Kapil was dropped for Kolkatta test against England. It was far fetched considering one man especially sunny could not change the outcome of the match.

Guys these are just rumours which I don't believe in necessarily. But one thing I am sure that there used to be two groups - North group and Bomaby group within team. This match is my one of my first memories of cricket.

[vvvslaxman]

Guys these are just rumours which I don't believe in necessarily. But one thing I am sure that there used to be two groups - North group and Bomaby group within team. This match is my one of my first memories of cricket.

This particular rumour was spread by news columnists themselves. SUnny was never on good terms with Eden Garden crowd ever since Kapil dev was dropped for kolkatta test. He had to deal with volley of abuses from Eden Garden crowd.

[Ultimate_Game]

When Kapil walked in 120+ runs were needed at around 6 RPO with no other specialist batsman to follow. That was not an easy chase in those days and the wicket wasn't the best for shot making. It was due to Kapil's 30 off 22 deliveries that the target came down and Kapil was out much before the 9 overs and 51 runs equation you are talking about. Yeah, Kapil played a stupid shot when the mid wicket had just been moved there - he later said he did not notice it being moved - and was sacked from captaincy because of it, but the run equation had come down into control because of his innings.

My point was not about Kapil but regarding "bombay players under-performing coz Kapil was captain". I don't think anyone would have deliberately not given their best just because Kapil was the captain. True, players may not have gone along well with each other which happens all the time as you can't expect 16 players + coaches/managers to live like a big happy family without any disagreements, but once the game starts I don't think any player would under-perform deliberately and especially in a game like a WC semi-final, and that too when the tourney was being hosted in India for the 1st time and the match was played in India.

[The Outsider]

This particular rumour was spread by news columnists themselves. SUnny was never on good terms with Eden Garden crowd ever since Kapil dev was dropped for kolkatta test. He had to deal with volley of abuses from Eden Garden crowd.

Yeah, there were questions whether Gavaskar would play the final because he had vowed never to play in front of the Eden Gardens crowd and did indeed sit out of a test match there against Pakistan earlier than year.

My point was not about Kapil but regarding "bombay players under-performing coz Kapil was captain". I don't think anyone would have deliberately not given their best just because Kapil was the captain. True' date=' players may not have gone along well with each other which happens all the time as you can't expect 16 players + coaches/managers to live like a big happy family without any disagreements, but once the game starts I don't think any player would under-perform deliberately and especially in a game like a WC semi-final, and that too when the tourney was being hosted in India for the 1st time and the match was played in India.[/quote'] I don't necessarily buy that rumor as true, but it was there and it was there even before the match and I think Raghav was just filling in with regards to some snippets surrounding the match. As mentioned above there was also the rumor and speculation that Gavaskar would not play the final at Eden Gardens if India did make it.

[Lurker]

My point was not about Kapil but regarding "bombay players under-performing coz Kapil was captain". I don't think anyone would have deliberately not given their best just because Kapil was the captain. True' date=' players may not have gone along well with each other which happens all the time as you can't expect 16 players + coaches/managers to live like a big happy family without any disagreements, but once the game starts I don't think any player would under-perform deliberately and especially in a game like a WC semi-final, and that too when the tourney was being hosted in India for the 1st time and the match was played in India.[/quote'] Quite true. I doubt that there was any intentional non-performance, if you will, by any player. That being said, after 83 WC the demise of Mumbai coterie in Indian cricket had definitely started, if not accelerated. For the most part players from Bombay were playing second fiddle, something they were not typically used to. Back to 87 WC, it was a fantastic WC and in many ways it was one of the top ones. You had 3 very good team - WI, Pak, India and the second lot of Eng, Aus, NZ was pretty competitive. Zimbabwe played some great cricket. Dave Haughton had a great innings against NZ and it took Martin Crowe a herculean effort to dismiss him. Chetan Sharma hat-trick, Sunny going nuts against Chatfield, Walsh doing his sporting gesture, Qadir slamming six at the end. I also remember this WC as the moment when personally I saw Imran Khan as a great bowler. In one of the games against WI, the latter were crusing at 185/5 or 6 wickets down, Imran got them all gone within 15 runs. He had cut down his run up, still had the majestic jump and along with Akram made a pretty potent attack, specially in the slog overs. I personally think 87 WC was a much better effort than 92/96/99 who didnt leave with too many memories really.

[Ultimate_Game]

Quite true. I doubt that there was any intentional non-performance, if you will, by any player. That being said, after 83 WC the demise of Mumbai coterie in Indian cricket had definitely started, if not accelerated. For the most part players from Bombay were playing second fiddle, something they were not typically used to. Back to 87 WC, it was a fantastic WC and in many ways it was one of the top ones. You had 3 very good team - WI, Pak, India and the second lot of Eng, Aus, NZ was pretty competitive. Zimbabwe played some great cricket. Dave Haughton had a great innings against NZ and it took Martin Crowe a herculean effort to dismiss him. Chetan Sharma hat-trick, Sunny going nuts against Chatfield, Walsh doing his sporting gesture, Qadir slamming six at the end. I also remember this WC as the moment when personally I saw Imran Khan as a great bowler. In one of the games against WI, the latter were crusing at 185/5 or 6 wickets down, Imran got them all gone within 15 runs. He had cut down his run up, still had the majestic jump and along with Akram made a pretty potent attack, specially in the slog overs. I personally think 87 WC was a much better effort than 92/96/99 who didnt leave with too many memories really.

I think ne of the reasons could be the format of the tourney as there were no meaningless games. Only 2 teams had to come out of the groups so every game counted. In the recent World Cups the majority of the games (league phase) are meaningless coz top 8 teams go through to the next round which means a team will actually have to play like zombies to not make it to the next round. Sports is all about context and meaningfulness of a game. If the game doesn't mean much something is taken away from it and people don't cherish it as much. I would say that the last WC had as many amazing memories and moments, if not nore, than the 87 WC but they didn't mean as much in the bigger picture. For example we had the amazing Ireland chase of 328 against England, we had the amazing Ind-Eng tie, the SA collapse against Eng, B'desh upsetting Eng, Ind taking apart SA and then imploding, WI bottling it against Eng when they were just about to cross the finish line, SA choking once again in quarters when the match was theirs for the taking, Indians beating all the former WC winners on their way to the title, epic Ind-Pak WC semi and then one of the best chases in a pressure game in the final. Those were all great moments worthy of mention for years to come but the fact that Ireland's upset didn't mean much took away most of the shine away from the tourney and most of these moments (other than Q/F onwards). If we had 2 groups or super 6s where Ireland's showing had resulted Eng getting knocked out then these would have been moments to cherish. Hopefully ICC will do a better job of coming up with a format for the next WC as 1 month of inconsequential games is not good enough for the premier cricketing showpiece.

[maniac]

Quite true. I doubt that there was any intentional non-performance, if you will, by any player. That being said, after 83 WC the demise of Mumbai coterie in Indian cricket had definitely started, if not accelerated. For the most part players from Bombay were playing second fiddle, something they were not typically used to. Back to 87 WC, it was a fantastic WC and in many ways it was one of the top ones. You had 3 very good team - WI, Pak, India and the second lot of Eng, Aus, NZ was pretty competitive. Zimbabwe played some great cricket. Dave Haughton had a great innings against NZ and it took Martin Crowe a herculean effort to dismiss him. Chetan Sharma hat-trick, Sunny going nuts against Chatfield, Walsh doing his sporting gesture, Qadir slamming six at the end. I also remember this WC as the moment when personally I saw Imran Khan as a great bowler. In one of the games against WI, the latter were crusing at 185/5 or 6 wickets down, Imran got them all gone within 15 runs. He had cut down his run up, still had the majestic jump and along with Akram made a pretty potent attack, specially in the slog overs. I personally think 87 WC was a much better effort than 92/96/99 who didnt leave with too many memories really.

I also think 87 was the resurgence of the Aussie squad which was in rebuilding phase and spiral of English odi cricket for atleast the next 2 decades.Yes,They reached the finals in 92 but they were not the same team they once were.Also I think this is the official mark of the end of WI era of dominance in ODI cricket as well.

[maniac]

^ Also to add we saw the emergence of Sidhu who according to me is one of the most under-rated ODI batsman especially in late 80's-90's era

[Lurker]

^ Also to add we saw the emergence of Sidhu who according to me is one of the most under-rated ODI batsman especially in late 80's-90's era

Yes. Started cranking 50s at will. That was one reason why we lost. Our batting just seemed too strong, even Sharma was cranking century. Coming back to 87 semis, odd as it may sound, till the very end I thought we would win. The score was gettable, Kapil was going at a good speed, even after his dismissmal we were not that far off...I suppose that overconfidence existed in the Indian team as well..and we got effed. You are quite right that this WC also triggered the end of WI cricket as we knew it.

[Lurker]

I think ne of the reasons could be the format of the tourney as there were no meaningless games. Only 2 teams had to come out of the groups so every game counted. In the recent World Cups the majority of the games (league phase) are meaningless coz top 8 teams go through to the next round which means a team will actually have to play like zombies to not make it to the next round. Sports is all about context and meaningfulness of a game. If the game doesn't mean much something is taken away from it and people don't cherish it as much. I would say that the last WC had as many amazing memories and moments, if not nore, than the 87 WC but they didn't mean as much in the bigger picture. For example we had the amazing Ireland chase of 328 against England, we had the amazing Ind-Eng tie, the SA collapse against Eng, B'desh upsetting Eng, Ind taking apart SA and then imploding, WI bottling it against Eng when they were just about to cross the finish line, SA choking once again in quarters when the match was theirs for the taking, Indians beating all the former WC winners on their way to the title, epic Ind-Pak WC semi and then one of the best chases in a pressure game in the final. Those were all great moments worthy of mention for years to come but the fact that Ireland's upset didn't mean much took away most of the shine away from the tourney and most of these moments (other than Q/F onwards). If we had 2 groups or super 6s where Ireland's showing had resulted Eng getting knocked out then these would have been moments to cherish. Hopefully ICC will do a better job of coming up with a format for the next WC as 1 month of inconsequential games is not good enough for the premier cricketing showpiece.

There is definitely some truth to that. There were 8 or so team and for cricket lover would knew all the team members of each team, even SL and Zimbabwe. That brought a certain sense of knowledge/engagement. Coupled with far less cricket played those days, WC was a marquee event and every player was at the top of his game.

[maniac]

Yes. Started cranking 50s at will. That was one reason why we lost. Our batting just seemed too strong, even Sharma was cranking century. Coming back to 87 semis, odd as it may sound, till the very end I thought we would win. The score was gettable, Kapil was going at a good speed, even after his dismissmal we were not that far off...I suppose that overconfidence existed in the Indian team as well..and we got effed. You are quite right that this WC also triggered the end of WI cricket as we knew it.

I think we have come a long way since then atleast in the finishing department....back in those days our lower order would meekly surrender in ODI's....Since then we have had some players like Srinath,Kumble,Harbhajan and even now with the likes of Ashwin etc where the game against India is not over unless it is over.