Published: Feb 05, 2011, 10:19 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 04, 2015, 01:40 PM (IST)
By CricketCountry Staff
India vs England, Reliance World Cup, Wankhede Mumbai, 5th November 1987
England won by 35 runs
The tag of defending champions sat comfortably with India when they locked horns with England at the Wankhede Stadium. Kapil did the first thing right by winning the toss. But the move to insert England backfired as India had to contend with Graham Gooch – quite prolific throughout the World Cup.
Dislodging Gooch early was the key to India’s plans of gaining an upperhand, but all such thoughts were buried as Gooch frustrated the Indian attack with tactical brilliance. Unperturbed by the loss of fellow opening partner Tim Robinson and Bill Athey, Gooch put England on a firm footing with a superb century stand with captain Mike Gatting.
Gooch employed the sweep profitably and proficiently to tackle the Indian left-arm spin duo of Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri.
India had something to cheer about when Maninder dismissed Gatting and seven runs later, ended Gooch’s resistance – but not before he had scored 115. Allan Lamb kept England going and took his side to 254 for 6 in the allotted 50 overs.
Gatting once revealed how Gooch perfected the sweep shot at the nets. “Graham Gooch practised for two days by sweeping the left-arm spinners at the nets. He kept playing the shot in front of square and behind square at the nets and got ready for the game,” he once said about the detailed planning that went behind their preparations for the semi-final match.
Phil Defreites made early inroads knocking over Sunil Gavaskar’s off-stump in what the legend’s last international outing. Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Navjot Singh Sidhu got a partnership going, but they never quite dominated the England bowlers. Neil Foster came into the attack and snuffed out Srikkanth and Sidhu to leave India in fair amount of unease. Mohammed Azharuddin and Chandrakant Pandit initiated a recovery process before Foster jettisoned Pandit.
Azharuddin kept the Indian chase alive with a brief fifth-wicket stand with Kapil Dev, before the Indian captain played a shot that bordered on impetuosity – one that is still talked about as the indiscretion which cost India the match. Kapil went for a might heave off Eddie Hemmings but holed out to Mike Gatting at deep mid-wicket.
The home crowd was beginning to fear the worst as a downcast Kapil trudged off the ground. But Indian hopes were alive and kicking as long as Azharuddin and Ravi Shastri were there in the middle. But a pall of disappointment descended the Wankhede Stadium when Eddie Hemmings trapped Azharuddin lbw to push India closer to defeat.
All Indian hopes went up in smoke when Shastri became Hemmings’s fourth scalp as the defending champi.
