It is important to make a comparison between the two teams of the altogether different eras as conditions like overs, boundaries, equipments; techniques and game plan have changed. The optimism in the air across India and the reminiscence of victorious days of 1983 force us to relate the present day celebration to the glorious past.
The 1983 world cup final was between India and West Indies at Lords; both had reached finals defeating England and Pakistan respectively. Indian team was underdog and minnows against the two times champion West Indies team comprising of best batsmen (Richards, Lloyds, Haynes, Greenidge) and bowlers (Robert, Garner, Holding, Marshall) of all times. Indian team batted first after loosing the toss and made paltry 183 runs but was able to restrict them to 140 runs, thus beating them by 43 runs. Indian team won because it was having bunch of useful all-rounders like Mohinder Amarnath, Kapil Dev, Sandeep Patil, Kirti Azad, Madan Lal, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Yaspal Sharma, K Srikant, Ravi Shastri, etc.,The tournament also saw the turnaround blistering innings of Kapil Dev,making 175 runs against Zimbabwe.
The 2011 world cup final was between India and Sri Lanka at Mumbai. This time we were favourites from the start of the tournament and we were playing at home. We defeated Australia and Pakistan in crucial quarterfinal and semifinal games. Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first after a small goof-up in tossing. They scored 274 runs and we were able to make 277 runs with 10 balls to spare thus winning by 6 wickets. This time we had a very balanced team,coached by Gary Kirstein, comprising of players like Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni,Virender Sehwag,Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, etc.
In 1983 world cup, the Indians were total underdogs; they were young, passionate and sentimental. The team strategy was to restrict the opposition to moderately low scores and put up a moderate total; it heavily relied on all rounders and swing bowlers. They were playing in unfavourable foreign conditions and had never won any tournament. Kapil Dev was relatively young captain and had certain differences with Sunil Gavaskar.
The 2011 Indian team was very professional, experienced, confident and clinical in its approach and favourite from the start, relied heavily on their batsmen and spinners. As the World Cup was being hosted by the Indian subcontinent, the team was expected to be helped by the dry and high scoring pitches and supportive fan base. The team was capable of both putting up high total and also chasing it down. M.S Dhoni, being a very settled captain, had already won many tournaments like first T20 world cup in 2007.
However it won’t be improper to say that it was the victory of Prudential Cup1983 that changed the course of cricket in India and laid down foundation for the 2011 victory.
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