1
979— india’s tour of england—lost 0-1; fa-
mous last test at the oval. chasing a victory target
of 438, the indians finished with 429 for 8. this was
the highest total a side had ever been set to win a
test in the fourth innings. But the indians had al-
ready established a record, beating the West indies
at Port of spain three years prior, by making more
than any team had ever made to win a test batting
last. sunil Gavaskar had been instrumental in that
victory. on this occasion, he nearly pulled off yet
another, even more stunning act. if critics could
point a finger at the 1976 miracle saying the West
indians weren’t at full strength, nothing such
could be said of england in 1979. Yet again Ga-
vaskar went about his task with unrivalled finesse
and artistry. he batted for 8 hours and 9 minutes, and
at 389, with india just 48 runs shy of victory, was caught at
mid-on for 221. his innings had 21 fours and was justifiably
chosen by John arlott as part of the BBC’s package of special
test match performances. By the end of the mandatory overs,
the indians had reached 429-8, a mere two hits away from an
incredible victory.
W
ON THE SERIES 2-0, the 1986 tour of England ranks
among India’s best overseas wins. Never before had an
Indian team acquitted itself better than Kapil Dev’s men,
which beat the English in both the Texaco one-day and the
Cornhill five-day series. This was one of Indian cricket’s
best overseas victories of all time. With the World Cup a
year away, everything seemed to be going for the Indians yet
again. This was especially so for Chetan Sharma who needed
a miracle to get going after being hit for six of the last ball
by Javed Miandad in Sharjah. For months, he was a traitor
who had let the nation down. The win in England and his
multiple five-wicket hauls made Sharma a more complete
cricketer.
The other highlight of this tour was Dilip Vengsarkar
completing the distinction of scoring three consecutive
hundreds at Lord’s—1979- 103 in the second innings of the
second Test; 1982- 157 in the second innings of the second
Test; and, 1986- 126 in the first innings of the first Test.
To quote Robin Marlar, “India won the Lords Test, the
showpiece, because Dilip Vengsarkar took the old ground
by storm. Cricket has added charm because it is concerned
not only with the here and now, but also with past achieve-
ments in the continuity of a cricketing career. When he is
old, Vengsarkar will, I hope, take immense pleasure in his
unique standing as the first non-England batsman to score
three hundreds in successive series at Lords...”I
ndia l Ost the three test match series 0-1 and
the real high point for india was the perfor-mance of Kapil dev, who was clearly india’s
player of the summer. he scored close to 300
runs and picked 10 wickets and had established
himself as india’s premier all-rounder. dilip
Vengsarkar yet again got a hundred at lord’s
(157) while sandeep Patil scored a hundred in the
second test at Old trafford. unfortunately for in-
dia, the batsmen did not click together allowing
england to dominate right through the series.
Dev and the Details
sunny side Up
KAPil’s DeVils
Signatures of players from India’s
Test squad to England in 1986Yashpal
Sharma was
dismissed by
Derek Pringle
in the first Test1979
6 august 2018 http://www.openthemagazine.com 43
1982
1986