India’s first Test on English soil was also their first ever Test, at Lord’s in June 1932. For the next 39 years and 20 further Tests, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. In that period, India lost 15 and drew six games, which meant that by the time Ajit Wadekar led his team out in July 1971 for a three-match series, the expectations were mixed.
Mixed, because there was a sense of foreboding, given that India had never won a Test in England, but also a feeling of optimism, following the unexpected 1-0 triumph in the Caribbean under the same captain, India’s first Test and series victory in the West Indies, a few months previously.
There was everything to play for when the teams locked horns at The Oval; the first two outings, at Lord’s and Manchester, had ended in stalemates. Despite grabbing a nine-run lead at Lord’s in the first Test, India had to hang on by the skin of their teeth to force a draw in the opener, finishing on 145 for eight after being set 183 for victory. At Old Trafford in the next fixture, the weather intervened, and the visitors held on for a comfortable no-result despite conceding a deficit of 164 so that when the carnival shifted to the southeast county of Surrey for the decider, Wadekar’s lads were genuinely in with a chance of creating history.
Opting to bat, England had the better of the exchanges. Riding on half-centuries from John Jameson, Alan Knott, and No. 8 Richard Hutton, England amassed 355, scoring at a frenetic (in those days) 3.26 runs per over. Even though the bulk of the bowling was marshalled by the spin triumvirate of Bishan Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar and S Venkataraghavan, Eknath Solkar, who bowled left-arm medium-pace and spin with near-equal felicity, was the most successful bowler with three for 28.
India lost openers Ashok Mankad and Sunil Gavaskar, who had smashed 774 runs in four Tests on debut in the Caribbean, cheaply but rallied to post 284, thanks to handy knocks from the skipper himself, Dilip Sardesai, Solkar and stumper Farokh Engineer, a seasoned campaigner with Lancashire in the English County Championship. Skipper Ray Illingworth, the off-spinner, took one of only three five-wicket hauls in 61 Tests to ensure his side enjoyed a healthy 71-run advantage, early on day four.
It was England’s game to dominate from that point, but they ran into tartar in Chandra, the wonderful leg-spinner who defied polio and convention to establish himself as among the greatest spinners of his generation. A dozen years back, Chandra told this writer that he needed only four fielders in specific positions — at slip, forward short-leg, leg-slip and near the square-leg umpire. “When I bowled well,” he added, “they were enough. When I didn’t, it didn’t matter how many fielders were there.”
In England’s second innings, the great leggie didn’t just bowl well, he was extraordinarily brilliant. The somewhat fortuitous run out of Jameson for the second time in the match, backing up at the non-striker’s end when Chandra got his hand to a drive from Brian Luckhurst that smashed the stumps, opened the floodgates and India were then all over their opponents like a bad rash. Solkar held two wonderful catches at short-leg and India’s fielding lifted itself to make sure that England were shot out for 101, Chandra ending up with the remarkable figures of six for 38 from 18.1 overs.
India needed 173 for a historic victory. Time wasn’t a factor – there was a day and a quarter left – but nerves were. Gavaskar fell for a blob to John Snow, and when Mankad followed him to the dressing-room for 11, India were in strife at 37 for two. Fortunately, they had experience and class in the middle order. First-innings heroes Sardesai and Wadekar steadied the ship by adding 39 for the third wicket, after which GR Vishwanath helped the former realise 48 for the next.
‘Vishy’ was coming off a blob in the first innings and was determined to make amends, battling past defensive bowling and excellent fields set by Illingworth to reach 33 in nearly three hours when he became very part-time left-arm spinner Luckhurst’s only Test victim, caught behind. “The worst shot of my life, to a long hop,” he moaned to me some years ago. India needed only three at the time and Solkar completed a memorable triumph on Ganesh Chaturthi – Indian fans had brought an elephant to the ground to celebrate the occasion! – with a four, triggering a tsunami of delirium and catapulting Wadekar to the cricketing stratosphere.
Brief scores: England: 355 all out in 108.4 overs (John Jameson 82, John Edrich 41, Alan Knott 90, Richard Hutton 81; Eknath Solkar 3-28, Bishan Bedi 2-120, BS Chandrasekhar 2-76, S Venkataraghavan 2-63) and 101 all out in 45.1 overs (Brian Luckhurst 33; Venkat 2-44, Chandra 6-38) lost to India: 284 all out in 117.3 overs (Ajit Wadekar 48, Dilip Sardesai 54, Solkar 44, Farokh Engineer 59, Abid Ali 26; John Snow 2-68, Ray Illingworth 5-70) and 174/6 in 101 overs (Wadekar 45, Sardesai 40, GR Vishwanath 33; Derek Underwood 3-72) by four wickets.