This Day That Year: India Registered Their First ODI Victory in 1975 Cricket World Cup After Sunil Gavaskar's 65
Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Co entered the inaugural World Cup edition in 1975 as an inexperienced team. Before the tournament, India played only two matches. Also, they faced a 202-run loss against host England in their first game. However, they made a brilliant comeback in their second match against East Africa and scripted history.
With 513 victories, India are the second-most successful team in ODIs after Australia (575). However, the tale of India’s illustrious journey in ODIs went underway on exact this day (June 11) in 1975. Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Co entered the inaugural World Cup edition in 1975 as an inexperienced team. Before the tournament, India played only two matches. Also, they faced a 202-run loss against host England in their first game. However, they made a brilliant comeback in their second match against East Africa and scripted history. This Day That Year: Kapil Dev’s All-Round Performance Guided India to Their First Ever Test Win at Lord’s in 1986.
Back then, each team was allotted to bat 60 overs in an ODI match with each bowler allowed to deliver 12 overs. East Africa captain Harilal Shah won the toss in that game and decided to bat first. Pacer Syed Abid Ali put up a sensational display of fast bowling and ran through Africa’s top order. In the middle overs, the likes of Madan Lal, Bishen Singh Bedi and Mohinder Amarnath shone as East Africa was bundled out for mere 120 runs.
Bedi was especially lethal in the game as he gave away just 6 runs from his quota of 12 overs and claimed one wicket. While Madal Lal scalped three and Amarnath took two wickets.
To chase the mediocre-looking target of 121 runs, Indian openers Sunil Gavaskar and Farokh Engineer came out to bat. The two didn’t put a foot wrong as East Africa bowlers looked completely ineffective against the pair. Gavaskar and Engineer paced their innings to perfection and registered unbeaten half-centuries. The former scored 65 runs off 86 balls while Engineer scored 54 runs off 93 balls. Riding on their efforts, India clinched the game by 10 wickets and registered their first-ever triumph in ODIs.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2020 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).