1987 WC semi-final

[India-KXIP fan]

lol @ all buddhas ITT As if anyone cares about a game in the stone ages. The real cricket is modern era, we are the generation that has seen the best of cricket and will see even better in future Umad? Poverty helmets, pitches, grounds. Poor equipment and players techniques. Please go. Do u even DRS?

[maniac]

lol @ all buddhas ITT As if anyone cares about a game in the stone ages. The real cricket is modern era, we are the generation that has seen the best of cricket and will see even better in future Umad?

Looks like the babysitter is in the other room and KXIP fan has sneaked his way to the computer room

[vvvslaxman]

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' date='Kumble,Harbhajan and even now with the likes of Ashwin etc where the game against India is not over unless it is over.[/quote'] I wouldn't say.. Binny and Madanal were capable batsmen. Shastri also came at the back end. Sandhu could bat a bit. Attitude, intent all changed over the years. Kirti Azad smashed 22 runs in the last over of Carl Rackemann. 2 sixes 2 fours and 2 twos.

[Number]

lol @ all buddhas ITT As if anyone cares about a game in the stone ages. The real cricket is modern era, we are the generation that has seen the best of cricket and will see even better in future Umad? Poverty helmets, pitches, grounds. Poor equipment and players techniques. Please go. Do u even DRS?

:hysterical::hysterical:

[adi B]

lol @ all buddhas ITT As if anyone cares about a game in the stone ages. The real cricket is modern era, we are the generation that has seen the best of cricket and will see even better in future Umad? Poverty helmets, pitches, grounds. Poor equipment and players techniques. Please go. Do u even DRS?

:haha:

[StatsRock]

Alright, I bunked school for the Aus-Pak semifinal and the Ind-Eng semifinal was a holiday because of some minor religious festival. I also read Martin Johnson/Henry Blofeld's book with match by match reports of the Reliance Cup. So what is it you guys want to know? Aus visited India in 1986 as a pretty beat-up side but unknown to many, Simpson and Border had cunningly used that trip to make a recce of the Indian pitches and conditions and plan out their strategies for the next year's Cup. Australia went to Lahore for the semis with absolutely no pressure. Won pretty handily against Pakistan. Everything clicked for them that game. We foolishly thought India were favorites because of the way they murdered the pussycat Kiwis in the last league game. Eng is another beast altogether and we conveniently forgot they had beaten the Windies twice. I and my friends were sure of India winning. But according to Blofeld/Johnson, the English camp felt that the packed Bombay stadium and the waiting Indian press could easily steam the Indian team to jelly. 1st session Gooch started sweeping once spinners came. He had practised the sweep in the nets all of the previous day. They tried to elicit a top edge and kept bowling to his legs. Pretty stupid it was. England was restricted to 254 when they looked good for close to 280. India were unconcerned that there was no Vengsarkar. Overconfidence indeed. Once we got to the 30 over mark, the pressure simply erupted. England kept a cool head. It could be argued both ways about Kapil. In such an atmosphere you dont want the target to be merely 'gettable'. You needed to stay ahead of the asking rate otherwise you might be mentally screwed once you lost a wicket. This is why he was hitting out. And Hemmings really is a pretty mediocre bowler. Unfortunately Kaps' exit exposed the tail who hardly had to come in to bat most of the tournament. Naturally they shat bricks and surrendered meekly. All in all, a nice match but like Blofeld felt earlier, India caved in to the pressure of home crowd.

[StatsRock]

Some more context now... On Apr 2 1987, India met England in the Sharjah Cup, where they squeaked out a 7-ball win in a close contest. India were chasing 212. These are the highlights of the Indian innings: Srikkanth 56 off 73 Vengsarkar 40 off 66 Kapil 64 off 54 (coming in with 115 left to win, 6w in hand) Azhar 24* off 33(matchwinner as the tail was beginning to collapse) DeFreitas 0-33(10 ovs) Foster 1-46(9 ovs) Emburey 3-38(9.5 ovs) England did an excellent job of choking the Indian batsman with only the 3 free-stroking batters above feeling comfortable in the chase. Kapil's swashbuckling 64 made a huge difference as it not only took the pressure off but also shielded the dodgy middle-order against the very accurate Emburey, while whittling down the target. (I still remember a lovely square drive that Kapil hit off David Capel for 4). Fast forward to Nov 5 and the 87 WC. This time the above 3 bowlers had: DeFreitas 1-37(7 ovs) Emburey 1-35(10 ovs) Foster 3-47(10 ovs) And the batters, Azhar 64(74) Pandit 24(30) Kapil 30(22) Shastri 21(32) When Sidhu fell at 73-3, we were in the 20th over, Kapil walked in with the asking rate crossing 6. So it's not like you can potter around for much time. When you know that you had attacked and succeeded against pretty much the same bowling attack 7 months back, why in the world would you screw around with a different strategy, and that in a World cup semifinal? It was the hour of reckoning and you had to go for it. India after all went for broke against Australia at Delhi(289) and the 2 games against NZ and had the highest RR of all teams in the Cup(5.32 if my memory is correct) so attack was definitely their trump card. The match was lost by the bowlers but unfortunately the batters were left holding the can.

[SLICKR392]

:two_thumbs_up: P.S : Please unblock me from your YouTube channel mate. :proud:

[Lurker]

Some more context now... On Apr 2 1987, India met England in the Sharjah Cup, where they squeaked out a 7-ball win in a close contest. India were chasing 212. These are the highlights of the Indian innings: Srikkanth 56 off 73 Vengsarkar 40 off 66 Kapil 64 off 54 (coming in with 115 left to win, 6w in hand) Azhar 24* off 33(matchwinner as the tail was beginning to collapse) DeFreitas 0-33(10 ovs) Foster 1-46(9 ovs) Emburey 3-38(9.5 ovs) England did an excellent job of choking the Indian batsman with only the 3 free-stroking batters above feeling comfortable in the chase. Kapil's swashbuckling 64 made a huge difference as it not only took the pressure off but also shielded the dodgy middle-order against the very accurate Emburey, while whittling down the target. (I still remember a lovely square drive that Kapil hit off David Capel for 4). Fast forward to Nov 5 and the 87 WC. This time the above 3 bowlers had: DeFreitas 1-37(7 ovs) Emburey 1-35(10 ovs) Foster 3-47(10 ovs) And the batters, Azhar 64(74) Pandit 24(30) Kapil 30(22) Shastri 21(32) When Sidhu fell at 73-3, we were in the 20th over, Kapil walked in with the asking rate crossing 6. So it's not like you can potter around for much time. When you know that you had attacked and succeeded against pretty much the same bowling attack 7 months back, why in the world would you screw around with a different strategy, and that in a World cup semifinal? It was the hour of reckoning and you had to go for it. India after all went for broke against Australia at Delhi(289) and the 2 games against NZ and had the highest RR of all teams in the Cup(5.32 if my memory is correct) so attack was definitely their trump card. The match was lost by the bowlers but unfortunately the batters were left holding the can.

Alright, I bunked school for the Aus-Pak semifinal and the Ind-Eng semifinal was a holiday because of some minor religious festival. I also read Martin Johnson/Henry Blofeld's book with match by match reports of the Reliance Cup. So what is it you guys want to know? Aus visited India in 1986 as a pretty beat-up side but unknown to many, Simpson and Border had cunningly used that trip to make a recce of the Indian pitches and conditions and plan out their strategies for the next year's Cup. Australia went to Lahore for the semis with absolutely no pressure. Won pretty handily against Pakistan. Everything clicked for them that game. We foolishly thought India were favorites because of the way they murdered the pussycat Kiwis in the last league game. Eng is another beast altogether and we conveniently forgot they had beaten the Windies twice. I and my friends were sure of India winning. But according to Blofeld/Johnson, the English camp felt that the packed Bombay stadium and the waiting Indian press could easily steam the Indian team to jelly. 1st session Gooch started sweeping once spinners came. He had practised the sweep in the nets all of the previous day. They tried to elicit a top edge and kept bowling to his legs. Pretty stupid it was. England was restricted to 254 when they looked good for close to 280. India were unconcerned that there was no Vengsarkar. Overconfidence indeed. Once we got to the 30 over mark, the pressure simply erupted. England kept a cool head. It could be argued both ways about Kapil. In such an atmosphere you dont want the target to be merely 'gettable'. You needed to stay ahead of the asking rate otherwise you might be mentally screwed once you lost a wicket. This is why he was hitting out. And Hemmings really is a pretty mediocre bowler. Unfortunately Kaps' exit exposed the tail who hardly had to come in to bat most of the tournament. Naturally they shat bricks and surrendered meekly. All in all, a nice match but like Blofeld felt earlier, India caved in to the pressure of home crowd.

Thats for the trip down memory lane StatsRock. :hatsoff:

[Crookbond]

last 10 overs 52 required 5 wickets in hand. Harmless hemmings was bowling. It was pretty pathetic that India bottled it. Kapil dev got lot of cop after that dismissal. Also poor captaincy by Kapil dev. Gooch had only one shot against spinners which was sweep. Not enough protection there.

I guess it was Gatting too. Ironically, Gatting got out on the reverse sweep to Steve Waugh in the finals which changed the complexion of the game. A note on the sweep shot - The Indian spin bowlers I guess were caught in shock. England came out with a clear plan. In order for the sweep shot to be prevented the length has to be much fuller. However, our bowlers tried changing angles, sides and what not. As far as the WC goes, we definitely should've won this one. From what I hear, we thought too far ahead. Everyone was waiting for the epic India-Pakistan final and both the SC teams got knocked out from the SF's itself.

[StatsRock]

You're welcome Lurker Bhai. mcenley, the results were not too unfair. England had won the Ashes in Australia and took the Perth challenge cup beating Pak, Aus and WI. Then won the Sharjah Cup as well. Aus had made huge improvements in the sub continent. Pak had thrashed India 6-1 in the March ODI series. So the WC results were not really off the mark.

[Vijay.Sharma]

StatsRock, thanks for your posts. I remember that Sharjah game too. But IIRC England actually won that Sharjah Cup in the end mainly because of the trait that personified IndoPak cricket of the 80s. During that Sharjah cup there was no final. And the team that finished on top of the league table would win the cup. Pak had the chance of winning it when they faced India and they had a pretty easy target to chase down too. But they had to beat India with a good RR to go ahead of England on the RR for winning the cup. It was the 80s and an IndoPak match meant you try to eliminate loss against the opposition at all costs and think about winning only later. Pakistan played it safe and instead of going for the better RR they chose to just get a win against India coz they were scared that if they went for the better RR and lost wickets which somehow led to losing to India then they would become chicken feed back home. Back to the semi final game itself. Kapil was my hero then and when he got out I had tears in my eyes. That day was such a sad day that in the evening we guys didn't even play. I thought Azza played a gem but in the end Shastri screwed up big time dancing down the wicket and blocking it back to Hemmings. Earlier in the day Gooch swept us out of the WC. It was pretty unimaginative captaincy by Kapil. Maninder and Shastri kept feeding Gooch on the legs. Damn how stupid we were. In a way that defeat reminded me of the Miandad six defeat. It was very difficult to swallow. But come the Sunday and I was all out in support for the Aussies to lift the WC - they did and the legend of Steve Waugh was born!

[spiron]

Sad we didn't have a bat twirler of Dhoni's quality earlier else we would have had another WC trophy :sniffle:

That is a fair post. IF ONLY, that silly Dinesh mongia had been replaced by a keeper like Dhoni in 2003.. things might have been different.

[spiron]

Wasnt the reason for Gav'skar shunning the Eden Garden was that his wife was ill treated at the venue once ?

[Crookbond]

Wasnt the reason for Gav'skar shunning the Eden Garden was that his wife was ill treated at the venue once ?

NO - he was pelted with fruits in 1981/82.

[StatsRock]

During that Sharjah cup there was no final. And the team that finished on top of the league table would win the cup. Pak had the chance of winning it when they faced India and they had a pretty easy target to chase down too. But they had to beat India with a good RR to go ahead of England on the RR for winning the cup.

Vijay, Pakistan needed to score at 5.63 an over to win the cup. The best run rate achieved in that tournament was England's 4.64 against Pakistan. So in essence, Pakistan required about 0.99 or about 50 runs above the best batting performance to win the cup. Which is just not an easy task. I do think England were the best team in Sharjah and deserved to win. Coming back to the World Cup, my view is that the form book can be considered only upto the league, once you get to the knockouts, it could be just anybody from then on. You basically need one little piece of magic to tilt the game in your favor. The good teams know how not to let this happen but sometimes after a magical spell, the pressure sets in and kills you. 1983 semi : 5th bowler combo of Azad/Amarnath sank England from 69/0 1987 semi: Waugh smacked Jaffer for 18 in Over 50, then McDermott wrecked Pak top order 1992 semi: Inzi out of the blue knock vs NZ 1996: Jadeja's 2 overs against Waqar, Lara's ton vs WI, DeSilva's assault vs Ind, Warne vs WI 1999: Warne vs SA

[carnish]

Vijay, Pakistan needed to score at 5.63 an over to win the cup. The best run rate achieved in that tournament was England's 4.64 against Pakistan. So in essence, Pakistan required about 0.99 or about 50 runs above the best batting performance to win the cup. Which is just not an easy task. I do think England were the best team in Sharjah and deserved to win. Coming back to the World Cup, my view is that the form book can be considered only upto the league, once you get to the knockouts, it could be just anybody from then on. You basically need one little piece of magic to tilt the game in your favor. The good teams know how not to let this happen but sometimes after a magical spell, the pressure sets in and kills you. 1983 semi : 5th bowler combo of Azad/Amarnath sank England from 69/0 1987 semi: Waugh smacked Jaffer for 18 in Over 50, then McDermott wrecked Pak top order 1992 semi: Inzi out of the blue knock vs NZ 1996: Jadeja's 2 overs against Waqar, Lara's ton vs WI, DeSilva's assault vs Ind, Warne vs WI 1999: Warne vs SA

Howwz that Possible... :idunno: I thought Lara played for WI

[Crookbond]

:D

[youngindia]

I also took a "sick leave" for the match. England's start was pretty slow. they had only around 20 in the first 10 overs as gooch and robinson found it difficult against kapil and prabhakar.maninder and shastri were expected to strangle england.england had struggled against qadir and co and were well beaten by pak in pak side of the leg. Once the spinners came on,gooch unveiled his suprise. he swept everything around leg,middle and offdrove anything outside off. contrary to expectations, the spinners started struggling and were totally getting flummoxed. Gatting had a great tour of india in 1984 with some quick footwork and his domination in indfian conditions didn't change. Gooch made one mistake at 84 and srikkanth put it down. but gatting and gooch were taking spin to the cleaners gradually. The misery ended only when gatting came up with overconfident shot on to his stump.as if he got bored by the lack of challenge. Lamb made some lusty hits and england had a competitive score. From the beginning, nothing went right. gavaskar was cleaned up by defreitas.srikkanth and sidhu held out for a while. Then came foster. foster like gatting had a mental edge from the 1984 tour when he had a 10 wkt haul in chennai.foster fired out srikkant,sidhu and pandit effectively putting india in dire strits. Pandit tried a sweet little cameo. but if ever a vengsarkar 50 was missed, it was that day. he was out of the match. amarnath could have been the difference . the decision to drop mohinder hurt particularly in the semi final. Only kapil threatened briefly. but he took one risk too many. Azhar was the only batsman that day but he never looked like taking india to victory. Shastri was the last man standing and dismissed. looking back, that indian team was nevewr really more than mid tier. conditions in england and australia lead to phase of over achivement as teams at that time were not sure how to counter lack of pace from madan lal and binny and windies also strangely didn't come up with their best in crucial matches. In Indian conditions,it was brutally exposed even in those days. every strong team had an easy win in india and even an inexperienced australian team only lost narrowly in 1986. only wins over then minnow srilanka and NZ were there. the sole reason for optimism (or mis guidance?)was the the last 2 major tournaments were indian wins. even in India's group, australia was the only real challenger.its doubtful if semis would have been reached with any other arrangement. it would be ridiculous to think they wud not be exposed across 2 WCs. but they came quite close to pulling it off! The 2011 team was a genuine cup winning team ,that team was not. australia had an inexperienced team but they had better potential.

[singhprakash72]

Vengsarkar sat out with a stomach bug' date=' Gooch kept sweeping ith our team having no clue on how to stop him and then Gavaskar was bowled, TV was switched off :(([/quote'] Again to me biggest surprise was Vengsarkar sitting out in Semis ..he was in great form and guess what, they replace him with Chandrakant Pandit (not to demean him) but that guy was a fraking Wicketkeeper who could bat !!! Also Kapil was pretty defensive and easily played into hands of Gooch & Co. India messed up when it mattered most ..it could have been rare chance to Win 2 WCs in row !!!