Sometimes being a 'showman' is important to draw the crowd into the cricket ground. While we all remember Indian skipper Kapil Dev's 175 against Zimbabwe Tunbridge Wells in 1983, very few can recollect the Haryana Hurricane's blistering innings to finish off the Group stage match against Zimbabwe during the 1987 World Cup.
India won and toss and elected to field first. Zimbabwe lost their first wicket in the form of opener Ali Omarshah who was run-out for a duck. After the poor start, the batsmen tried settling in but the runs dried out as the other opener Robin Brown could manage only 13 runs from 52 deliveries.
Number three Kevin Arnott top-scored for Zimbabwe with a 126-ball 60 and forged a 67-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Andy Waller, who contributed with a quick 39 off 44 deliveries.
With the disciplined bowling from India runs became hard to come by and Zimbabwe could only manage 191 runs in 50 overs. Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma claimed two wickets apiece. Kapil bowled two maiden overs in his 10-over spell and returned figures of 2/44 while Chetan finished with figures of 2/41.
As the chase began, India lost opener Kris Srikkanth with 11 runs on the board. Sunil Gavaskar and Navjot Singh Sidhu then took the game away from Zimbabwe's grasp with a 94-run partnership. Both the batsmen reached their respective fifties and departed.
The job was left to Dilip Vengsarkar and Kapil Dev to finish. As the game had become dull and one-sided, Kapil decided to entertain the audience with his batting. He scored a quickfire 41 off 25 balls to complete the rout with eight overs to spare and seven wickets in hand. His innings included three maximums and two fours.
Dilip Vengsarkar, on the other hand, played a supporting role while making an unbeaten 33 off 43 balls.
The Indian captain received the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance that brought some life to the match.
Defending champions India finished on top of the group but faltered in the semi-finals losing to England by 35 runs.