The MRF World Series for the Nehru Cup was akin to the World Cup itself, with all top teams assembling in India for top honours. The best players in the world had congregated on one stage, and the race was as much for team glory as for individual bragging rights.
Few people have the same sense of occasion as Viv Richards. The bigger the stage, the more determined he was to stamp his authority, and this was as big a stage as one could get. So the King got down to business against the team he had tormented so often in the past that there was a certain pleasurable pain in watching Richards dismantle India.
It was here, in 1974, that Richards had made his Test debut and, after failure in his first Test, gone on to show what he was made of. Since then, he had caned India in all corners of the globe, and decided to showcase his all-round brilliance all over again on this day in 1989, at the Ferozeshah Kotla in the Indian capital.
In a match reduced to 45 overs a side, West Indies struggled for momentum, Richie Richardson’s 110-ball 57 perfectly illustrating their woes. Then, in walked Richards and, as if batting on a shirtfront, lay into an attack comprising Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Sharma, Mohinder Amarnath and Arshad Ayub. When the dust settled, Richards had blazed to 44 off 42 with three fours and a six, and taken his team to 196 for nine.
India’s chase was measured and well planned, with Raman Lamba’s 61 fuelling their charge. At 143 for four and time not a factor, India were on course for a straightforward win when Richards brought himself back on to bowl his off-spin. Mohammad Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri, Kapil, Kiran More and Ayub were gobbled up in no time. Allied with Amarnath’s scalp previously, it gave Richards the extraordinary figures of six for 41 from 9.4 overs. India were bowled out for 176, West Indies home and dry by 20 runs. The King, he was quite something else.
