Watch: During a 1987 World Cup match against Zimbabwe, 38-year-old Sunil Gavaskar took a spectacular one-handed catch at the Wankhede Stadium.
As defending champions and co-hosts, India were among the favourites at the 1987 World Cup. They lost their first match against eventual champions Australia by a run, but that was after captain Kapil Dev allowed an Australian four to be converted to a six at the lunch break.
After beating New Zealand, they came to Bombay to play Zimbabwe.
Gavaskar, Indian cricket’s first global superstar, had announced that the 1987 World Cup would be his last. Kapil, at that point the only Indian who could match his stature, had taken field alongside Gavaskar for nearly a decade. They had also played under each other’s captaincy.
They did not know this, but on this day, they took field alongside a teenager who would surpass them in stardom in the era of satellite television and the internet: Sachin Tendulkar was a ball kid for this match as well as the semi-final against England at the same venue.
Zimbabwe were in disarray against Manoj Prabhakar (4-19) after opting to bowl. He took four wickets in his first 17 balls, and by the sixth over, Zimbabwe were 13-4.
Then Maninder Singh (3-21) took out the middle order. The score read 99-8 when L Sivaramakrishnan, playing in what would be his last international match, came to bowl at the No.10, Zimbabwe’s 40-year-old captain John Traicos.
Sivaramakrishnan bowled a full toss from round the wicket. Traicos tried to put it away, to the left of the right-handed Gavaskar at mid-wicket. But age had not affected the reflexes of Gavaskar, who dived to his left to come up with a spectacular one-handed catch.
Electronics brand Bush had run a Super Catches Contest for the World Cup. Gavaskar’s catch made it to the shortlist.
Andy Pycroft (61) pushed Zimbabwe to 135, but Gavaskar launched a furious, near-uncharacteristic onslaught in response, scoring his first 36 runs in nine boundaries. Dilip Vengsarkar then finished things off in a blaze.
