Dear Editor,
The Reuters World Cup cricket news item captioned ‘Top 10 batting innings in World Cup’ (SN, Feb 15) which you published contains a gross error. India’s former captain Kapil Dev should have been listed as number 3 scoring 175 against Zimbabwe in June 1983. It was this stellar performance that enabled India to remain in contention for the prestigious cup.
At one time, India was reeling at 9 for 4 wickets with the legendary Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth going back to the pavilion for ducks and the dependable Mohinder Amarnath and Sandip Patil back in the stand at 5 and 1 respectively. It became 17 for 5 a couple of overs later. Dev saved the day with his massive hits, setting record partnerships with the tail-enders. He scored a 100 off 100 balls and put on an unbeaten 126 runs for the 9th wicket. He finished not out with 175 runs off 138 balls, hitting 16 boundaries and 6 sixes. That record was broken by Vivian Richards in 1987.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
