How Impressive India And Pitch Surprise Dashed England's Dream

Richard Edwards recalls the last time England played a World Cup semi-final on home soil, coming up against unfancied opponents who rose to the occasion...

- Richard Edwards

Many England supporters had arrived in Manchester anticipating a procession and in some ways that was exactly what they witnessed. It just wasn’t the one they were expecting.

It was June 22, 1983 when England last played a World Cup semi-final on home soil, against an Indian side that up to that point had shown little flair for short format cricket.

At the 1979 World Cup, India had finished bottom of their qualifying group, failing to score over 200 in any of their three matches.

In the first ever World Cup match in 1975, they had responded to England’s total of 334 by embarrassingly crawling to 132 for three from 60 stultifying overs. When India arrived in England that summer, the bookies had them at 66-1 to win the tournament – and there were precious few punters willing to take those odds on.

Little wonder that the home fans filing into a packed Old Trafford were confident that Bob Willis’s side would make short work of them.

A quick look at the Manchester pitch, though, soon had England’s players scratching their heads.

“One of my abiding memories of that match was the blazing row I had with Cedric Rhodes, who was the chairman of Lancashire at the time,” said Willis. “The pitch was more Mumbai than Manchester. There wasn’t a blade of grass on it – it was dead slow and it turned. It really wasn’t what we wanted.”