Team India won the 1983 Cricket World Cup with a historic performance under the captaincy of Kapil Dev. In that tournament, India performed shockingly against the expectations and beat the big teams. A player was also involved in the title journey of the Indian team, whose success is not discussed. Thanks to this respected middle-order batsman, India started their campaign with a win. Yes! We are talking about Yashpal Sharma.
In the 1983 World Cup, the Indian team had to face the two-time champions West Indies in their very first match. Team India, which had performed poorly in the last two World Cups, was sent to bat first by the West Indies. His decision proved to be almost right, Yashpal Sharma came out to bat when the third wicket fell on the score of 76. Till the score of 141 runs, half the team had returned to the pavilion, but Yashpal maintained his patience.
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Yashpal Sharma decorated the Indian innings by facing 120 balls in that match at Manchester's Old Trafford ground. He not only played excellent strokes but also scored runs by running in coordination between the wickets. Yashpal alone scored 89 runs (9 fours), which helped India reach 262/8 in the allotted 60 overs. Due to that brilliant innings of Yashpal, India made a big upset in its very first match of Group-B and defeated West Indies by 34 runs. With this victory, the foundation was laid for India to become the world champion.
Yashpal Sharma played an aggressive innings in the match against Australia during the same World Cup, scoring 40 runs in 40 balls in which there was only one four. It is interesting that in that match it was not only the highest individual score from India, but no one scored so many runs from Australia in the counter-innings. Actually, chasing 248 runs, the Australian team was reduced to 129 runs in front of the sharp bowling of Madan Lal, Roger Binny (4-4 wickets) and Balwinder Sandhu (2 wickets).
Yashpal Sharma played a key role in the semi-final win against hosts England. He scored the highest innings of 61 runs, which included 2 sixes and 3 fours. India won that important match by 6 wickets and reached the final. What happened after this, got included in the pages of history. The Indian team broke West Indies' dream of winning the third consecutive World Cup and captured the World Cup for the first time. Yashpal Sharma (240) scored the most runs for India after Kapil Dev (303 runs) in the 1983 World Cup.
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Yashpal Sharma represented India in 42 One Day Internationals (1978–1985) and scored 883 runs at an average of 28.48. During this, no century came out of his bat, but the interesting fact related to his career was that he was never dismissed on 'zero' in ODIs.
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