India’s tour of England in 1979 was a difficult one even before the first ball was bowled. The team’s famed spin quartet had not fared well in the previous tour of Pakistan in 1978/79.
Slow bowling, which had been India’s main weapon right through the decade of the 70s, had not lived up to its usual potential in the series against Pakistan. EAS Prasanna, Bishan Bedi and B.S. Chandrasekhar had a poor outing with Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad scoring big runs. The great EAS Prasanna never played a Test match after that series.
Lacklusture bowling
The Indian bowling was short on confidence when they arrived at Birmingham for the first Test match of the series against England and did not recover during the course of the match. England won the match by an innings and 83 runs. The Indian bowling was so lacklustre that only Kapil Dev managed to take wickets in the first innings — all 5 of them. Both Venkat and Chandra went wicketless and gave away more than hundred runs each.
For India, the two little masters batted superbly. Sunil Gavaskar looked well set for a ton before he was run out and his brother- in-law Gundappa Viswanath too felt just short of their hundreds. Following on, it was the same story, with the duo again scoring half centuries and the rest of the Indian batting not doing much.
In the second Test at Lords, India were bundled out for 96 with only Gavaskar standing firm, scoring half of his team’s total. He scored a half century again in the second innings, making it three half centuries in a row in the series.
The third test was a Leeds and yet again Sunil Gavaskar scored 78 to register his 4th consecutive half century of the 1979 series. But two days of rain meant that only the first innings could be completed in the match and the Test ended in a tame draw.
Also read: To understand why Gavaskar is the greatest, recall 1987 Pakistan tour and unplayable wicket
The genius of Gavaskar
In the 4th and final Test of the series, it was Gavaskar alone who could bring India back into the series. The English bowling was formidable with two great quicks Ian Botham and Bob Willis and the skilled slow bowler Phil Edmonds. Ian Botham showed his class and had Gavaskar caught behind for an unlucky 13 to give the Indian opener his first failure of the 1979 tour. This meant that India could not put a big first innings total and had to chase 438 runs on the 4th and 5th day to try and win the test and square the series.
Gavaskar batted with caution along with his fellow opener Chetan Chauhan and India went to stumps on the 4th day without losing a wicket. When Gavaskar came out to bat on the last day, the task ahead of him was daunting to say the least. India needed around 360 — almost a run a minute — which might look ordinary in present day cricket but was unimaginable in the 1970s. During this Test, Gavaskar shared the dressing room with Yajurvindra Singh, the erstwhile prince of Bilkha, in Junagadh. Singh latter recalled how Gavaskar had told him that because the wicket was excellent to bat, India had an outside chance. This tells us the level of confidence that Gavaskar had as a cricketer. This was far from a jingoistic comment because he knew that, like always, it was he who would have to lay the foundation for the run chase.
There was hardly any crowd to begin with on the 5th day. The local people thought that the result of the match was a foregone conclusion as it would be next to impossible for a touring team to score 350 plus on the 5th day. But the Indian openers had other ideas.
India didn’t lose a wicket till lunch and got to 169. It totaled 213 at the post lunch drinks session. By the time tea arrived, India had scored 300 plus and the crowds started coming back. Sensing that Gavaskar was well on his way to hand his team a sensational victory, England captain Mike Brearley slowed the over rate. This led to jeers from the English crowd. It was a rare occasion when the home crowd jeered their own captain for using negative tactics to curb the genius of Gavaskar. Of course, Brearley was very much within the rules of the game.
Gavaskar was helped brilliantly by his Mumbai batsman Dilip Vengsarkar who added 150 plus runs with him. However, when Vengsarkar got out, something bizarre happened. Instead of sending in Vishwanath, who was a free-scoring batsman, the Indian captain Srinivas Venkataraghavan decided to change the batting order. There was some delay and confusion in the Indian dressing room — on who to send next. This gave England time to gather their thoughts as there was a slight delay in the play. Gavaskar asked for drinks and perhaps lost his concentration. When play resumed, Gavaskar lobbed a half volley to the leg side and was caught at mid-on, of Ian Botham. His innings had lasted around 480 minutes and Gavaskar had faced 450 deliveries for his marathon 221 runs knock.
The great English cricket writer John Woodcock was of the view that had Gavaskar not asked for drinks and had the Indian dressing room not tinkered with the batting order, the ace opener would have ensured victory. The fall of Gavaskar’s wicket brought panic in the Indian batting order. Vishwanath’s late entry made it worse. The final nail in the coffin was skipper Venkat promoting himself over Karsan Ghavri who was a better batsman.
It’s been 43 years to the day when this gem of an innings came from Gavaskar’s bat. Such was the brilliance of Gavaskar’s innings that even the English spectators wished for an Indian victory. Woodcock had later described Gavaskar’s double ton at the Oval the best innings he ever saw.
Kush Singh @singhkb is the founder of The Cricket Curry Tour Company. Views are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)