June 25… Historic day.. India played the first official Test at Lord’s.. It was here that it won the first ODI World Cup after 51 years.

New Delhi. The date of 25th June is immortal in the history of Indian cricket. On this date, India created history by winning the first ODI World Cup at Lord’s in 1983. But there is another story which is related to the same ground on the same date. If any one date in the history of Indian cricket can be called ‘Golden Day’, then it is 25th June. The interesting thing is that this date has a connection with the ‘Lord’s’ ground, which is called the Mecca of cricket. Years apart, this same ground and this same date gave two such turning points to Indian cricket, which changed the whole story.

The story begins from the year 1932 when on 25th June, India played its first official Test match under the captaincy of CK Nayudu. The strong England team was in front and the ground was Lord’s. Although, India did not win during that time, but the world realized the Indian cricket talent for the first time. From this day a new era of Indian cricket started.

Exactly 51 years later, on the same ground and the same date, India wrote a new history. On June 25, 1983, the Indian team had come to play against West Indies in the final of the ODI World Cup on this very ground of Lord’s. India’s captain was Kapil Dev, whose name was written in golden letters in history. No one had thought that Team India, known as ‘underdog’, would defeat two-time champion West Indies.

The whole country was in a frenzy

India won this match and the whole country was thrilled to see the shining trophy in the hands of Kapil Dev in the balcony of Lord’s. India had won in a low scoring match, in which the contribution of the bowlers was very high. Team India had given the target of 184 runs to West Indies. In reply, West Indies were bundled out for just 140 runs. Mohinder Amarnath got ‘Player of the Match’ from India. He also took three wickets along with his innings of 26 runs. Madan Lal also took 3 wickets in his name, while Balwinder Sandhu took 2 wickets in his name.