India and the West Indies have an eloquent history of cricketing encounters against each other, and the "Utsav Zone" celebrates just that. Moments of glory, performances to cherish, matches to remember for a lifetime - we pick them out from the 70 Tests and 66 one-dayers these two teams have fought over. Packaged together, the "Utsav Zone" presents you genuine cause to celebrate the sport's rich and hoary past.

Amarnath's finest hour

© ICC

As a batsman, Mohinder Amarnath in 1983 was scalding hot. After plundering a Pakistan attack led by Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz, he put a West Indian attack composed of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Winston Davis, among others, to the sword in the Test series in the Caribbean. The final day of the final Test of that India - West Indies series was to provide the finest moment in the gutsy cricketer's career.

The West Indies came into the match with a 2-0 lead that had already sealed the series in their favour. On April 28, the day the Test began, Clive Lloyd won the toss and put the Indians in. A century from Ravi Shastri - his second in his Test career - and nineties from Dilip Vengsarkar and Kapil Dev, captaining India for the first time in a Test series, saw the tourists post 457 in their first innings.

© CricInfo

When the West Indies replied, four of their batsmen - Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, wicket-keeper Jeff Dujon and captain Clive Lloyd - made centuries. It was the first occasion such a feat was achieved by the West Indies batsmen at home. Dujon's hundred was also the first time that a 'keeper scored a Test hundred at Antigua; it would be another 19 years before Ajay Ratra and Ridley Jacobs emulated him. Even the rare failure of Antigua's favourite son, Viv Richards, was forgotten as the West Indies piled on 550 in reply.

With the Test headed for an inevitable draw, the last modicum of excitement on the final day centered on whether Amarnath would score the 51 runs required to make him the fastest to a 1,000 Test runs in a calender year. An early dismissal of Sunil Gavaskar in the Indian innings meant that Amarnath had all the time in the world to accomplish the feat.

Settling in his by now famous one-eyed stance, Amarnath began to score runs with encouraging freedom. Soon he was celebrating another Test half-century, as also his 1,000th run of the calender year. It was just the third day of the fifth month of the year when the landmark was raised.

Buoyed by his world-record, Amarnath went on to score his seventh Test hundred, his second of the series. His 200-run second-wicket partnership with Anshuman Gaekwad (72) in the match still remains a record for that wicket against the West Indies at Antigua. In all, Amarnath scored 598 runs in the series - an achievement that was to establish his reputation as one of the best players of fast bowling in the world.

© CricInfo

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