Open Magazine – August 07, 2018

T

HAT THE win in the Caribbean was no flash in

the pan was evident when the Indians beat the

mighty English at the Oval, thanks to the magic of

Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. In his words, “My bowl-

ing in the first innings at the Oval was nothing

special, though I did get the wickets of Basil D’Oliveira

and Ray Illingworth. The second innings...well, that

was just one of those days. I had never been a bowler

who planned things. Most of the time, I bowled what-

ever I like, without giving much importance to the

conditions or who I was bowling to. I always believed

that if I bowled well, I could trouble most batsmen

because I could get extra bounce from a placid pitch

and get some nip off it. That afternoon, everything just

fell into place. We won the match, if I’m not wrong, on

Chaturthi day—someone had even brought an elephant

to the ground. But it was only when we arrived back

in India that we realized the enormity of our achieve-

ment. They took us from the airport to the Brabourne

Stadium in open cars and some of those cheers still

echo inside my head today.”

T

he 1967 tour of england was

one of the worst away tours

in the annals of indian cricket.

horrible weather marred

preparations and injuries to

key players like dilip sardesai

and subroto Guha did not help

either. india lost 0-3 and only

skipper Pataudi had a reasonable

tour with some decent batting

performances, which included a

century at headingley.

A Pat for Pataudi

the chandrasekhar effect

Ajit Wadekar, April 1971, on his return from England

The Pataudi-led squad in 1967

cricket

1967

1971

42 6 august 2018