Michael Holding swung at Jimmy Amarnath, missed the ball, was struck on the pads, given out leg before the wicket by umpire Dickie Bird and India had won the 1983 World Cup. Even as disbelief descended on us - disbelief for the West Indies that they had lost to the underdog in the final, disbelief for us that we had actually won the World Cup - we literally ran for our lives.

Jimmy Amarnath and all of us ran for our lives with the whole crowd descending on the Lord's ground. It didn't even occur to me to pick a stump as a souvenir. Jimmy, Yashpal picked up stumps. The celebrations had no bounds, we didn't believe that we had won the World Cup honestly.

A lot of people said that it was a flash in the pan. To hell with flash in the pan…we had won the CRICKET WORLD CUP beating the defending champions and the mighty West Indies, what more!

Though, it is nearly two decades since we won the World Cup some incidents are still clearly etched in my mind. The West Indians sent us in to bat in the final and we generally wobbled around to get to 183. Balwinder Singh Sandhu joined me for the last wicket partnership.

Balwinder and I added 22 runs for the last wicket. Balwinder walked in for the last wicket and had to face Malcolm Marshall - the fastest bowler in the world at that stage. The very first ball that the 'sardar' faced was a nasty bouncer and Balwinder was stuck on the helmet.

Umpire Dickie Bird was at the non-striker's end and he was very livid with Malcolm. He called the bowler and within my earshot, said, "Shame on you to bowl a bouncer at the last batsman who does not know how to hold a bat." Malcolm typically gestured with his body language that he was sorry about it. But, Dickie was so angry that at the end of the innings, he told me in very abusive language, "No brains for this bugger, bowling a bouncer and just 183 runs on board…such a small score for the mighty West Indian batting that they can clean up within 25 overs."

In the dressing room we had nothing to lose, our morale was really high - coming to the final itself was a big achievement for all of us. While we were walking out into the field, the only thing Kapil Dev said, "Common on lads let's do it again." Each one of us knew our responsibilities.

It was indeed a wonderful World Cup as the 'Good Luck' cycle was definitely with India as it had been proved in the unbelievable match against Zimbabwe. Sandhu, in fact, bowled a miracle delivery in his very first over to get rid of the high scoring Gordon Greenidge. The batsman judged the ball and shouldered arms - mind you Balwinder was only an outswing bowler - but to his dismay it just missed his pads and rattled the off stump. Amazing start to the West Indian reply as the players from both teams again stood in utter disbelief.

Viv Richards walks in and started his onslaught. Madan Lal, Jimmy Amarnath, all the bowlers were sent to the boundary with utter disdain as it literally rained fours, he reached 30 or 40 runs in hardly two or three overs. I thought at this rate the match would get over in 25 overs. And then Kapil took that lovely catch off Madan's bowling. Richards went for a hook shot and Kapil from short mid-wicket made a lot of ground and took a stunning catch. Every wicket was a match point like for us. Still we were not sure, but stayed focussed.

Clive (Lloyd) couldn't move his feet as he had some hamstring problem at that stage. But the West Indies had a side in which anybody could change the complexion of a game at any point of time - Jeff Dujon, Bacchus, Gus Logie, Desmond Haynes and Larry Gomes…wow what a line-up. But, one by one wickets started falling and before they could realise the top batsmen were back in the pavilion. The West Indians had a gritty tail and many times crossed the barrier of 50 or 60 runs and won or saved a match with the help of the tail. But, on that June 25, 1983 they literally panicked once Viv went. It could be seen on their faces that they had panciked, because he was their backbone and their entire legendary batsmen were back in the pavilion like what had happened to us against Zimbabwe.

It is beyond expressions how we won. It was a total team effort right from the very first ball and match of the tournament. Mohinder Amarnath was the man-of-the-match in the semi-final and final. Roger Binny was the highest wicket taker of the tournament. I was awarded the best wicket-keeper of the tournament - the world's best wicket-keeper - by none other than the late Godfrey Evans.

Any talk about the 1983 World Cup veers automatically around to the India versus Zimbabwe match. And let me tell you earnestly, my day was made by the superb knock of Kapil Dev. What an innings, what a man and to be associated with him in that unbroken partnership of 200 odd runs with Kaps is indeed a great honour and perhaps one of the biggest achievements of my cricketing career.

And on that particular day, the match against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells (June 18, 1983), the BBC went on strike. If only any guy had to video tape that match, he would have minted. I don't remember about toss, but we batted first. I was a number six or number seven batsman and so decided to have a leisurely and relaxing breakfast after the warm-up. I munched my breakfast wearing a towel around my waist. By the time I returned from the toilet and decided to get into my flannels, I heard a voice yelling, "hey pad up man". I said "aare kya ho raha hai! Pad up" (what's happening).

I had to literally rush into my gear as we were five wickets down with just 17 runs on the board. There was no time to think about what was happening in the middle. It was like a march past in the early morning hours. We didn't have time to go back into thoughts of how the five wickets fell. Even when I walked in at 140 for seven, it was not a very happy proposition. Kapil was waiting at the non-striker's end with his head bowed. He was apparently at bay and didn't know what to tell me and how to guide me. As is the God given system probably, I never bog down to tensions and pressures. My motto is do my best, put the right forward and do your best come what may was my attitude and approach towards anything in general walk of life.

I walked up to my captain before I could go to the other end to take strike and said, "Kaps I'll do my best to give you the maximum stand, you don't get worried and play your natural game…that's it. That's all I told him and judged the first two balls flying past my nose on the good bouncy track with tremendous movement off the seam and away from the seam too. The third delivery was little wide, gave me a little width though swaying away, I played boldly to the boundary through the third man cordon. The Zimbabweans had two slips at that stage of the game. They were attacking.

Apparently my stroke gave a lot of confidence to Kapil Dev and he must have been saying here is a man who has played his shot with confidence for four runs. He started from the next ball onwards…It was like 'Deepavali' festival, fireworks everywhere. I had very little of strike after that, everything he hit went to the boundary - either a four or a six. He hammered everything out of sight and I don't think I have seen a blistering knock of Kapil or anybody else in my entire career like that. No question of singles or twos in between. I was not out 24 and we had an unbeaten partnership of 126 runs. It was a masterly knock as he plundered the bowlers. There are no words to describe that innings.

We won the semi-final against England Old Trafford, Manchester in a canter to take on the West Indian might for the second time. Mind you, we had started our campaign in the World Cup against the West Indies at Manchester on June 9 with the match spilling over to the reserve day. We won that match to begin our World Cup tryst with a bang.

Before we left the shores of the country for the 1983 Prudential World Cup, I don't know about the other colleagues of mine what they had in their minds, but certainly as we were the underdogs of the tournament being one of the weakest teams inclusive of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. We had nothing to lose and in my mind I thought if we could qualify into the knock out stage, that would be a great achievement from the point of view.

Finally, my message is loud and clear. Today cricket administrators talk about the coach moulding a team with a whole lot of gadgets including laptops and what not.

Here in the 1983 World Cup team we had a manager not a coach at all. An administrator in P R Man Singh, who was a silent observer to all our deliberations in team meetings. All we did was discuss amongst ourselves whatever the strategies, game plan from all sources, everybody used to talk about like any other team. When you put in your efforts with sincerity and with the 'Good Luck' cycle in your favour everything goes your way.

The credit or discredit goes solely to the captain and the team.