Cricket’s World Cup moved out of England for the first time in 1987, with India and Pakistan as the co-hosts. Going into their final league fixture, India had bounced back from a one-run loss to Australia in their opening tie to place themselves on course to top the group, and secure a semi-final tie at home. To do so, they had to defeat New Zealand on this day, in the orange city of Nagpur.
Jeff Crowe’s New Zealand were a feisty side, and seemed to have set themselves up for a challenging total by reaching 181 for four with Ken Rutherford and Deepak Patel having put on 59 for the fifth wicket. There was no sign of what was to follow when Ravi Shastri dismissed Patel for 40, caught by skipper Kapil Dev.
A little while later, Chetan Sharma snuffed all the fight out of the Kiwis with the first hat-trick in World Cup history. The little medium-pacer from Haryana dismissed Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield with the last three balls of his sixth over, all of them bowled, to earn that unique distinction. New Zealand scrapped and battled their way to 221 for nine, all the momentum sucked out of their innings, as Chetan finished with three for 51.
All India needed was a straightforward victory, but there was no measured approach to their chase. Krishnamachari Srikkanth blitzed New Zealand with 75 off just 58 deliveries with nine fours and three sixes, the dominant partner in an opening stand of 136 with Sunil Gavaskar. The latter himself hardly pottered around, smashing an unbeaten 103 in just 88 deliveries, a knock that contained 10 fours and three sixes. It was Gavaskar’s first ODI hundred, and came in his penultimate game, as it turned out. Their nine-wicket win with 107 deliveries to spare earned India a semi-final against England at Mumbai, where Graham Gooch put on an exhibition of tremendous sweeping against Shastri and Maninder Singh to rudely end India’s defence of their title.
