India Wins the Test at Oval - A Repeat of the historic 1971 Victory.
Ever since India’s debut in the test cricket at the Lord's, England, on 25 June 1932, for nearly forty years, India continued to be a weak team in comparison with other Test cricket teams, such as Australia and England. The year 1971 was a watershed year that remains etched in the annals of cricket history in India. It was in that year, under the new captain – Ajit Wadekar – India registered her first ever away-series victories in the West Indies and England to inject a refreshing self-belief in the Indian cricket, hitherto unseen. The 1971 Wadekar team backed up the two back to back series victories over seas with a series win against England in India a year later (1972) thus achieving a remarkable three series wins on the trot. Will the Indian team under Virat Kohli follow suit and win or draw the last test match - scheduled at the Manchester cricket grounds between 10-14 September - to repeat that historic moment of the 1971 series victory, is something which all cricket enthusiasts will wait to watch.
For us Indians, game of cricket is something which appeals to most of us and therefore I am certain that with yesterday’s test victory everyone will have updated themselves with what has unfolded in this test series between India and England. While the first test ended as a draw, courtesy the rain Gods, Indians won the second test at Lords, comprehensively. England came back hard at Indians to give us an innings defeat at the Leeds to level the series 1-1. The victory at the Oval has given India a 2-1 lead and hope we win or draw the Manchester test to win the series on the 14th September.
Yesterday’s test win at the Oval grounds will definitely have made most of my generation people go nostalgic to recall that historic 1971 England series. It was the time when we did not have live telecast and we had to depend on the radio commentary to catch up with the cricket news on BBC. Since the year 1971 was an year of great reckoning for India, I am writing this blog to recall that historic England series of 1971 and the Oval test victory.
The Indian Cricket team under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar, went to England - to play a 3 match Test series - just two months after their historic tour to the West Indies, which they won 1-0, in the same year, 1971. The Test series in England was played during the period July-August, 1971. This is a period when the pitches in England tend to wear and support spin. The Indian team included four of their best spinners - the famous spin quartet Bishen Singh Bedi, Bhagawat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, and Venkataraghavan. Like the Indians, who were in high spirits after their 1-0 test series victory against the mighty West Indians, the England team too was in high spirits for they had just won the 7 Test Ashes series 2-0 against their arch rivals Australia. The England team, led by a thorough professional, Ray Illingworth, was clear favourites to win the series against India. The England team also included BL D’Oliveria, a central figure in the ante apartheid and boycott of South Africa from International cricket - that is however a separate story.
The Indians opened their England tour with the tour match against Middlesex at the Lords (23-25 June, 1971) which they won by 2 wickets. They however lost the next match to the Essex. They played 6 other tour matches four of which were won by the Indians and two were draw. The Indians went into the First Test, at the Lords (July 22-27) with great confidence. India dominated the first Test of the series, which unfortunately ended in a draw with rain affecting the last stage of the match. England, helped by some rare guard action by John Snow, who came in at 183 for 7 to score 73 runs, ended their first innings at a respectable 304 runs. Aided by three scores of fifty plus by Captain Ajit Wadekar, the stylist Gundappa Vishwanath and Eknath Solkar the Indians were able to score 9 runs more than the England in the first innings. England was bundled out for 194 in the second innings. The Indians were given a modest target to score 183 in the fourth innings to win the test. The English bowlers came hard at Indians and India ended the last day with a score of 145 for 8, when rain came pouring to end the first test in a draw. This test also witnessed an untowardly incident. Sunil Gavaskar and Snow were involved in this incident when the mightily looking Snow collided with Sunny while Sunny was taking a quick single. Sunny went tumbling down due to the massive impact. Snow, even after a spectacular show with both bat and bowl, was unfortunately dropped for the next Test due to this untoward incident.
The second Test was played at the Old Trafford, Manchester. England chose to bat first after winning the toss. Aided by captain’s century knock, England scored an imposing 386 runs. The Indians were bundled out for 212. Gavaskar and Solkar scored half centuries for the touring team. England declared their second innings at 245 for 3 with the opener Luckhurst continuing his form to score a century. The Indians, set to score a massive 420 runs for the win or bat out the remaining time for a draw, were aided by the rain and the match was called off when Indians were 65 for 3. With the series level at 0-0, both teams then met at the Oval in the final match.
In the third and final match that was played at the Oval, England won the toss and elected to bat first. They ended their innings with a respectable score of 355. In reply, India made 284 runs as the hosts took a 71-run lead in the first innings. Chandrasekhar then spun magic with the ball picking up a match-winning 6-wicket haul to bundle out England for a paltry 101 in the second innings. Chandra finished with match figures of 8 for 114 in the match. India chased down the target of 173 with four wickets in hand to record the historic series win at the Oval on 24th August, 1971. The scene of this historic victory at the Oval in London was ecstatic with scores of Indian fans thronging to the ground, where Ajit Wadekar’s team had beaten England by four wickets to end the hosts' run of 26 Test matches without defeat. Each member of India's XI was a hero during and after this magnificent win, but the one who really stood out was the legendary leg spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, who had helped the team to the historic win.
The three Indian spinners along with Prasanna took 197 of the 244 wickets to fall in the entire series thus dominating the bowling and paving the way for an era of spin that was to follow in India. The England team came to the subcontinent the following year (1972) and found the spin trio too hot to handle once again on the spin-friendly tracks in India. The visitors were handed a 2-1 defeat in the subsequent five-match series at home with Wadekar registering his third successive series win as captain of the Indian team.
The year 1971 and the three successive series victories, including two overseas, had helped the Indian team to come off ages and ever since the Indian team has continued to move up in the ranking, both in Test cricket and One-day Internationals. India now stands second in the test ranking ( New Zealand occupying the top spot). The historic victory at the Oval test, which Kohli and his men achieved yesterday after fifty years of that epic 1971 test victory is a befitting tribute to the nation on the occasion of the Azadi Ka Amrut Mohatsav.
Jai Hind. May India continue to scale newer heights in every area from sports to economic growth to the well being of it’s citizens and may the platinum jubilee anniversary of our Independence bring in another tryst with destiny moment for all of us.
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