Video: Yashpal Sharma’s Audacious 2 Sixes That Set The Trend For Current Indian Batsmen

Video: Yashpal Sharma's Audacious 2 Sixes That Set The Trend For Current Indian Batsmen

New Delhi: Former India batsman Yashpal Sharma was possibly the first Indian batsman to have set the trend for the current generation to be audacious in their batting approach when he struck two huge sixes in the semifinal of the 1983 World Cup match against England. The first of two towering sixes came against the bowling of Paul Allott. Yashpal made room for himself and smashed it over long-off and the second came against Bob Willis where he walked right across the stumps, lifted his left leg and whipped it over square-leg.

The former India middle-order batsman took to Twitter to post the video on 25th June and captioned the video as, ‘Semi final match against England in 1983 World Cup.’ The date, 25th June has a special place in Indian cricket as on this day in 1983 India won their first World Cup beating West Indies by 43 runs.

The explosive middle-order batsman passed away on Tuesday morning due to a massive heart attack. Yashpal played a crucial role in India lifting the trophy as he ended the tournament being the second-highest run-scorer for India. His 89 from 120 balls against West Indies in their first match in the World Cup campaign turned out to be a match-winning knock. He soon followed that performance up with an aggressive 40 against Australia and gritty 61 against England in the semi-final that helped India winning those games.

Yashpal was also an umpire, coach and a former India selector who was very vocal against the then coach of the Indian cricket team Greg Chappell when Sourav Ganguly was left out of the team.