World Cup memory: When Sunil Gavaskar brought the heat on New Zealand

Sunil Gavaskar, who scored a century for India in the 1987 World Cup game against NZ in Nagpur. Pic/Getty Images

Sunny tasty in Orange City
For all his great Test exploits, Sunil Gavaskar was not rated supremely for his batting in one-day cricket. But in the 1987 World Cup, Gavaskar running a temperature, put the heat on the New Zealanders at Nagpur where he slammed his one and only limited overs century in 85 balls in his 107th ODI. His big-hitting not only had the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground crowd on their feet, it also made teammates Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit to watch the action from an area near the sightscreen.

It was a day well spent at the cricket for the spectators because apart from Gavaskar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth's sizzling display, there was also Chetan Sharma, who earlier in the day, bagged India's first international cricket hat-trick, dismissing Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield in his final over. This turned out to be India's second last match of the 1987 World Cup as the defending champions lost to England in the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. India's batting hero of Nagpur, could manage only four runs in his home city.

Did you know?
Farokh Engineer was on air when Mohinder Amarnath trapped Michael Holding leg before wicket in the 1983 final. Apart from describing the dismissal, Engineer yelled, "Give them a holiday, Mrs Gandhi, give them a holiday."

Figured out
Navjot Singh Sidhu scored 50-plus in every innings of the 1987 World Cup except once - 22 against England in the semi-finals

Man to watch
England's mercurial all-rounder, first represented his country in 2011, but he hasn't had the honour of playing in a World Cup. Playing on home turf, Stokes will be viewed as a dangerous customer with bat, ball and in the outfield. He didn't exactly have an unrewarding last series against Sri Lanka where he top-scored with 67 off 60 balls in England's massive 219-run loss in Colombo.

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