India on tour: The champagne moments
Part III: History at the OvalThe woeful showing of the Indian cricket team abroad was for long bestsymbolized by their record in England. Until 1971, out of 19 Testsplayed in that country since 1932, India had lost 15 and drawn four.In 18 of the Tests. they had conceded the first-innings lead. In noneof the Tests was there even a semblance of an Indian victory, and,indeed, on most occasions, the team went down without a fight.
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Suddenly, the hunter had become the hunted. An unexpected avenuenow presented itself before the Indians to win the Test and wrap upthe series. The English total of 101 meant that India had to make 173for victory in about eight hours. |
In 1959, all five Tests had been lost. In 1967, the visitors had gonedown in all three matches. Along the way, there had been suchinglorious deeds as losing the first four wickets without a run on theboard, losing the first five wickets for six runs, and being the onlyside to be dismissed twice in one day. The vastly different wicketsand weather conditions, more than the strength of the opposition,meant that the Indians were always up against it on a tour of England.When the 1971 team landed in England to play a three-Test series,there were indications that the visitors would put up a fight andwould not go the way of their predecessors by losing all the Tests orgoing down tamely. But of course, winning a Test let alone theseries was deemed out of the question. True, more or less the samesquad had performed admirably in winning the series in the West Indiesjust a few months before. But whereas the West Indies were in therebuilding process, England were, in 1971, very much the best team inthe world, having just returned after regaining the Ashes inAustralia. They had a particularly good record at home, fielded aformidable all-round side, and were led by a shrewd and successfulcaptain in Ray Illingworth.The Indians took little time showing that there were a very differentlot from their gutless predecessors, winning five of the eight firstclass games prior to the first Test including four in a row. In thefirst Test, they matched England in every department, even taking thefirst-innings lead for only the second time in 21 Tests in thatcountry and came close to winning before rain washed out play on thefinal evening. In the second Test at Manchester, however, the Indianswere distinctly lucky to escape with a draw. England had the better ofthe game, but rain again played spoilsport on the last day, with thehome team in a position of considerable strength.It was indeed a creditable feat by the Indians to come into the finalTest at the Oval with everything to play for, but England quickly putthemselves into an advantageous position by scoring 355 on the firstday. Rain washed out the second day’s play and, on the morning of thefourth day, India were all out for 284. With a handy lead of 71,England could strengthen their position if they scored quickly and setIndia a challenging target on the final day. This was what they haddone in the previous Test.However, this time, there was a distinct change in the script, thankschiefly to BS Chandrasekhar, who ripped through the England battingwith his deadly mix of leg-spinners, googlies and top-spinners. Inabout two-and-a-half hours, the formidable line-up of John Edrich,John Jameson, Brian Luckhurst, Alan Knott, Basil D’Oliveira, KeithFletcher, Illingworth and Richard Hutton were turned inside out asChandrasekhar finished with six for 38. Srinivas Venkatraghavansupported him well by taking two for 44, and the Indian catching,symbolized by Eknath Solkar’s famous catch to get rid of Knott, wasexemplary.Suddenly, the hunter had become the hunted. An unexpected avenue nowpresented itself before the Indians to win the Test and wrap up theseries. The English total of 101 meant that India had to make 173 forvictory in about eight hours. Time, however, was not really a factor;neither was the pitch which, but for the inevitable wear and tear,still played true on the whole. The psychological pressure of ahistoric victory was the major hurdle, and how the Indians handledthis would, in the final analysis, decide the outcome of the game.After the early loss of the openers, skipper Ajit Wadekar and DilipSardesai took the score to 76 at the close of play. Thus, on the lastday, August 24, which happened to be Ganesh Chaturthi, India requireda further 97 runs. Wadekar was out for 45 without any addition to thetotal but, amidst much tension, Sardesai and Gundappa Viswanath tookthe score to 124 before the former was out for 40. Solkar was fifthout at 134 and, as Farokh Engineer joined Viswanath, England espied aray of hope with India still 39 runs away from keeping their date withhistory.But Engineer quickly scotched their hopes with some daring shots, andthe two had carried India to within a stroke of victory whenViswanath, going for the winning boundary, was out for a gallant 33,made in three hours. It was written in Abid Ali’s fate to hit theclinching four a square cut off Luckhurst which set off amazingscenes of delight among the host of Indian supporters at the ground.Certainly the victory was the most famous in Indian cricket history;settling a historic series win and coming as it did on the 22ndattempt spread over almost 40 years, it set off a chain ofcelebrations all around the country, the like of which had never beenseen before.