What made the mid-1980s Indian ODI team so good?

[Teja.]

The Indian ODI team of the mid-1980s did not seem to have any particularly outstanding cricketers outside of Kapil Dev but they not only beat the WI in the finals of the 1983 world cup but beat them once before in the same tournament.

Further, they also won the 1985 world championship of cricket.

On paper, they had no right to compete and this was often reflected in bilateral series such as when WI visited India after the 1983 world cup and thrashed us 5-0 at home in the ODIs. During the big occasions however, such as 1983 and 1985, they came up with incredibly clutch bowling and fielding team performances to win crucial games.

Really fascinating side.

 

[Teja.]

1-2 (Sunil Gavaskar), 2-59 (Kris Srikkanth), 3-90 (Mohinder Amarnath), 4-92 (Yashpal Sharma), 5-110 (Kapil Dev), 6-111 (Kirti Azad), 7-130 (Roger Binny), 8-153 (Sandeep Patil), 9-161 (Madan Lal), 10-183 (Syed Kirmani)

+ BS Sandhu* was the WC final winning side in 1983 facing

1-5 (Sir Gordon Greenidge), 2-50 (Desmond Haynes), 3-57 (Sir Viv Richards), 4-66 (Larry Gomes), 5-66 (Sir Clive Lloyd), 6-76 (Faoud Bacchus), 7-119 (Jeff Dujon), 8-124 (Malcolm Marshall), 9-126 (Sir Andy Roberts), 10-140 (Michael Holding)

+ Joel Garner*

Just ****ing sick.

 

[harsh.ag]

The 1985 World Championship win was seriously impressive. They dominated the series. Won all 3 group games against Pakistan (by 6 wickets), England (by 86 runs), and Border led hosts Australia (by 8 wickets), then destroyed in the knockouts as well - NZ in the semi by 7 wickets and Pakistan again in the final, this time by 8 wickets.

Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Siva, Srikkanth all had a great tournament. A young Azhar did well too.

 

[Teja.]

Extended 45 min per match highlights of most of the matches of the 1985 series are up on youtube. These are now my meal videos for the next 2 weeks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNtz39WUzho&list=PL0r0LJ3PisBkv82MPHu0onfshJqKXPJwi

 

[mr_mister]

Was dibbly dobbly medium pacers right?

 

[trundler]

Gavaskar getting out early, looks like

 

[Teja.]

Just found out that the bookmaker odds of a India winning the ‘83 WC were 66:1.

 

[vcs]

Yes that 1985 tourney win was a great achievement by all accounts.

 

[Kirkut]

To be fair Windies were an overrated ODI side even though they were arguably the greatest test side. Australia, South Africa and Pakistan at their primes were better ODI teams.

 

[Daemon]

diet imo

 

[srbhkshk]

To be fair Windies were an overrated ODI side even though they were arguably the greatest test side. Australia, South Africa and Pakistan at their primes were better ODI teams.

lol what?

No Team is even close to them.

 

[Kirkut]

lol what?

No Team is even close to them.

In the 80s they were best. But 90s Pak and Aus of 2000s were easily better.

 

[srbhkshk]

Aus of 00s may have been slightly better, Pakistan of 90s were not as good as 80s WI, not even close.

 

[mr_mister]

Choking to India in '83 is a pretty big blotch on their record and makes it seem like the format was a bit of crapshoot back then where anyone could beat anyone on the right day


from 99-07 Australia were just dominant and never looked like losing on the grand stage

 

[srbhkshk]

In the end WI didn't win any world cup in the 80s so that's something you can mark against them, but it's still crazy to think that any team bar 00s Oz have been anywhere close to them.

 

[harsh.ag]

Choking to India in '83 is a pretty big blotch on their record and makes it seem like the format was a bit of crapshoot back then where anyone could beat anyone on the right day


from 99-07 Australia were just dominant and never looked like losing on the grand stage

Or it could simply be explained by the fact that ODIs, including the WC, weren't as big a deal in the 80s as they were by 2000.

 

[trundler]

For that reason I think those early era bowling averages are like post 2016 batting averages. It's hard to know which of those guys were actually good and which of them got lucky with a new format that wasn't taken as seriously.

 

[mr_mister]

yeah i mean Len Pascoe had ATG bowling stats

 

[AndrewB]

Choking to India in '83 is a pretty big blotch on their record and makes it seem like the format was a bit of crapshoot back then where anyone could beat anyone on the right day


from 99-07 Australia were just dominant and never looked like losing on the grand stage

Before the '83 final West Indies had 15 wins and 1 loss in World Cups, which hardly suggests that anyone could beat them on the right day. A couple of the wins in 1975 were close, but the 10 wins in 1979/1983 were all pretty comfortable.

Australia were obviously dominant in 2003 and 07, but not in 1999 - dominant teams don't lose two group games and scrape through in a tied semi-final.

 

[vcs]

Where does this "WI weren't that good an ODI side" revisionism come from? Didn't they smash everyone everywhere in bilateral ODI series? They didn't have dodgy Sharjah Pepsi Cups and the likes to play for back then. Will admit that the readmission of SA improved the depth of ODI cricket in the '90s by a huge amount though, and Zim/SL were also fairly decent sides in that era.

EDIT : SL were far more than decent actually