Today in Cricket History: In the 1975 Cricket World Cup match, India defeated East Africa. It was the Indian Cricket Team’s first ODI triumph.
June 11, 1975 was the day when team India registered their first-ever victory in the one-day International.
The first World Cup of cricket was held in 1975, and India participated as an inexperienced team. Incredibly, before the 1974 World Cup, India had only played two One-Day Internationals against England.
There were total of eight number of teams who took part in the inaugural World Cup 1975, including India. India were defeated by the Three Lions by 202 runs in their first match of the 1975 ODI World Cup.
However, the Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan-led team turned the tables and recorded their maiden victory in ODIs when they outlasted East Africa in the second match to record their first-ever win in ODI cricket.
East Africa, who won the toss and opted to bat first, faced a tough start as both Indian seamers Syed Abid Ali and Madan Lal removed the top order by dismissing 5 batters.
They lost half of their side at just 56 runs, and were in quite dilemma hot to put a decent total on board, but the left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi won’t allow him to score runs and gave just six runs in his 12 overs quota, including a wicket.
There were 60-overs games at the time, with each bolwer permitted to bowl maximum of 12 overs.
The right-arm medium bowler Mohinder Amarnath also took 2 wickets and restricted the East Africa team to just 120 runs.
Chasing the target of 121, both Indian batters Sunil Gavaskar and Farokh Engineer gave India a perfect start and later hand India their first-ever victory in ODIs after achieving the target in just 29.5 overs without even losing a wicket.
Sunil Gavaskar played a knock of 65* off 86 with the help of 9 fours, While Farokh Engineer scored 54* in 93 balls as India won the match by 10 wickets.
However, India were defeated by New Zealand by four wickets in their third game of the tournament, and were unable to progress further in the competition.
The inaugural World Cup 1975 was won by West Indies after beating the pre-tournament favourites England by 17 runs.
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