India roar with Binny’s four

When India needed some magic against the mighty Aussies, Binny turned up

By CricketCountry Staff 

Australia vs India, Prudential World Cup, Chelmsford, June 20, 1983

India won by 118 runs

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and India lived up to that saying, larruping formidable Australia in a must-win game at Chelmsford to secure their passage to the semi-finals of the World Cup. Seamer Roger Binny was one of the chief architects of that 118-run, wrecking the Australian top-order to gain an early ascendancy on the match.

The right-arm medium-pacer was brought into the attack as second change after Kapil Dev and Balwinder Singh Sandhu opened the attack. Binny came into bowl around the time when the Australian pair of Graeme Wood and Graham Wallop were initiating a mini recovery of sorts (43-run stand) after the early exit of Trevor Chappell. It didn’t take much time for Binny to get into the wicket-taking act as he breached the Wood-Yallop defiance, having Wood caught behind with the score on 46.

The Aussies needed a strong partnership in pursuit of 248 – their target. The onus was on David Hookes, who was Australia’s stand-in captain after regular captain Kim Hughes got injured in their previous game, to mount a rearguard action. But that was not to be, as Binny was determined to make this day at Chelmsford his very own.He clean bowled left-handed Hookes for a second-ball duck to have Aussies in the dumps. He perhaps struck the most decisive blow when he had Yallop caught and bowled to leave Aussies reeling at 52 for 4. Suddenly, in Woods and Yallop, Australia lost two batsmen who had got a start and their innings were in the doldrums at this juncture.

Except Allan Border’s stout resistance at one end, the rest of the batsmen just failed to offer any resistance. Binny capped off his fourth scalp, accounting for Tom Hogan, caught by Srikkanth, to have the Aussies facing the inevitable. He wrapped up his bowling spell with figures of 4 for 29 from his eight overs and the result by then was a foregone conclusion as Australia capitulated for 129 in 38.2 overs. After being shot out for 247, the target seemed a cakewalk for the Aussies to get in 60 overs.

But in the end, Binny’s craft in helpful conditions ensured that India emerged winners by a whopping 118 runs.