PLAY IT AGAIN FOLKS: INDIA IN ENGLAND!

 Ahead Of India’s 100th Test Against England, TOI Celebrates Some Of The Team’s Magic Moments

FEBRUARY 1952: India’s first Test win and it came thanks to Vinoo Mankad’s 8-55 and 4-53 and Pankaj Roy’s 111. Chepauk in Madras (now Chennai) was where the win came and the venue continues to prove lucky for India.
DECEMBER 1961-JANUARY 1962: India’s first ever series win. A decade after creating history, Nari Contractor’s boys were back at it again. Salim Durani was outstanding in Calcutta picking up eight wickets in the match and in Madras Tiger Pataudi slammed a fine hundred and Durani again picked up 10 wickets for India’s first-ever series win.
AUGUST 1971: India’s spin trio of Bedi, Venkat and Chandra proved too much for the England team. While India narrowly missed winning at Lord’s, they completed the job at the Oval with Chandrasekhar (6-38) bowling a once-in-a-lifetime spell on the fourth morning to help India surge back into the contest after conceding a 71-run lead. His efforts ensured that India didn’t have to chase anything beyond 173, which they won with six wickets to spare. It was the first time India had beaten England in an away Test.
AUGUST 1979: India, despite having chased 400 successfully in West Indies three years ago, were offered the bait of chasing 438 in 151 overs. In glorious conditions, with the sun baking down at the Oval pitch, the invitation was too tempting for Sunil Gavaskar as he went about creating his masterpiece. That India botched up a chase and opted for a draw after he was dismissed for 221 with India needing just 48 runs more, showed the over-reliance on him. It remains the highest score by an Indian in England and for its mastery, it was peerless.
NOVEMBER 1984-JANUARY 1985: When a 21-year-old pencil-slim wristy batsman walked into bat on New Year’s Eve at Eden Gardens, not many expected the impact Azharuddin would have on the series and the influence Eden would have on his career. But “Destiny’s Child” went onto establish one of the great romances between a cricketer and a venue by slamming 110 on debut. He also went on to slam tons at Chepauk and Kanpur to become the only batsman to slam three tons in his first three Tests.
JUNE 1986: Dilip Vengsarkar proved once again that he was the undisputed Lord Of Lord’s by scoring 126 not out which was his third successive ton at the venue. That coupled with sterling efforts by Chetan Sharma with the ball and Kapil Dev’s all-round abilities enabled India to record their first win at cricket’s Mecca. Vengsarkar scored an even better hundred on a devilish pitch at Leeds to help India win by 279 runs and log their second series win in England.
AUGUST 1990: Kapil Dev hit four successive sixes off Eddie Hemmings to help India save the follow on at Lord’s, but Graham Gooch’s triple-hundred had already put England firmly on the path to victory. In the second Test, in trying circumstances, Sachin Tendulkar announced his arrival with a match-saving unbeaten 119 at Old Trafford to begin his love-affair with centuries. While the series was eventually lost, India had found a superstar and a legend who was here to mesmerise. The series, dominated by Gooch, also saw fine batting from Azharuddin, Shastri and Kapil.

FEBRUARY 1993: Brownwash was the theme as on slow-turners at home, India found unlikely heroes in Anil Kumble, Rajesh Chauhan and Venkatpathy Raju. Done by the heat and some food poisoning, England just didn’t have the stomach for a fight as India recorded their first and only clean sweep over England, a verdict that extended Azharuddin’s captaincy tenure. England coach Keith Fletcher’s comment, “I don’t think we will have too many problems with Kumble. I didn’t see him turning a single ball from leg to off,” came back to haunt him as Kumble took 21 wickets in the series.  JUNE 1996: Probably Sourav Ganguly would still be thanking Navjot Sidhu for walking out of that tour following a tiff with skipper Azharuddin as that paved the way for Ganguly’s now famous debut at Lord’s. Batting at No. 3 and on a high following a diet of McDonald’s Burger and Coke, he showed that he was hungry for runs too and stroked a delightful 131. He followed that up with another sizzler, a stroke-filled 136 that lit up Trent Bridge.
AUGUST 2002: In a highly-entertaining series, England took the first Test at Lord’s despite an unexpected ton from Ajit Agarkar. Rahul Dravid then took giant-strides towards greatness by hammering tons at Trent Bridge, Headingley and a double hundred at Oval as Indian batsmen dominated the tour. India leveled the series with an emphatic win at Leeds to enhance their overseas record.
AUGUST 2007: No one expected that Anil Kumble would be the lone Indian centurion on that tour in an array of batting superstars. No one expected that Zaheer Khan, for long in the doldrums, to shake off the rust and bury England at Trent Bridge. No one expected Steve Bucknor to oblige India for a change and not uphold a leg-before against Sreesanth at Lord’s to help India to escape with a one-wicket draw. All of that happened as India won 1-0.
DECEMBER 2008: A series cut short to two Tests after the horrific 26/11 attacks was illuminated by Virender Sehwag’s daring heist on the fourth evening at Chepauk. His mad cap 87 gave India the chance to dream that 387 on a crumbling track could be chased. Tendulkar and Yuvraj ensured that the dream became a reality.

The 3-0 win over England in 1993 made fans hysterical

Sourav Ganguly (left) dazzles on debut at Lord’s

Kapil’s four sixers lifted India’s gloom at Lord’s

Chauhan, Raju and Kumble sunk England in 1993

Captain Ajit Wadekar and Oval hero B Chandrasekhar greet delirious fans after their win in the third Test in 1971

Eknath Solkar’s superhuman catch off Knott at short-leg, hastened India’s victory march
 

INDIA IN ENGLAND

India gear up for start of new era

Reputation, Ranking At Stake For Dhoni And Company Against Hosts England

London: In some ways, this could well be India’s final frontier. Over the last few months, they have squared off with every major Testplaying nation save Pakistan, and have either won or at least not lost the series. Now, they are in England, after an unceremonious win over West Indies, with the World No. 1 title on the line.
They need to, more than anything else, unravel the conditions to conquer the worthy contenders; if they succeed here too, it will signal the start of a new era, the beginning of India’s reign as the next powerhouse.
It is a complicated mission though: England are on a high themselves, after just making low work of Sri Lanka; more importantly, their confidence is supreme after almost cavorting with Australia in Australia. To make things wickeder for India, they will be at home.
India would have spent nearly a week before the first Test begins this Thursday; it has already assumed historic proportions, marking the 100th Test between the two nations and the 2000th overall. Appropriately, at least for those still trapped in a time warp, it will be played at Lord’s; it will be like coming home and going away in one stroke.
India will, however, try to ignore the sentiments attached to this game. They have played a practice match, rather refreshingly, and have already got a brush with bitter truth, if not harsh reality.
Taunton has pleasant memories for the team, even though that was in the context of a One-day game, the World Cup in 1999. But the last three days have hardly been pleasant.
Dark clouds have hovered ominously over the ground; it poured intermittently, at times forcefully too, to prevent India from settling down and falling into a rhythm. Worse, the bowlers could notextractswing while the batsmen fell to loose shots; in all, it was as disastrous as it could get.
India started with a formidable pace attack, hoping to corner Andrew Strauss and grab the psychological edge. But the England captain,who played as a guestfor Somerset, had the last laugh; it wasn’t a boisterous laugh but at least it silenced Zaheer Khan, for the moment.
Thebowlerswere not particularly interested in wickets and it showed in their figures; they focused on warming up, and getting their lines and lengths right. The county batsmen made the mostof the gift, amassing 425 for three.
It would have been an unnerving total even in a Test match. India’s batsmen too were forced to start on the backfoot.They all playedlike it was a One-day game, essaying shots that would have made them proud in coloured clothing. In the end, they barely lasted 50 overs.
Gautam Gambhir began in a flurry, Rahul Dravid in a typically cautious manner while Sachin Tendulkar was surprisingly over-circumspect. Suresh Raina was the unexpected hero, with a late cameo which turned into a century.
By the evening, the team will shift to a more bustling setup. It will have three days to getinto a Test mindset, and prepare for the long haul. Luckily, the players have blossomed into a fighting unit, capable of getting out of any dark hole. They need to have those instincts at their sharpest to conquer the final frontier.

WAITING TO STRIKE: Pacer Zaheer Khan and Sachin Tendulkar have huge responsibility on their shoulders to help India keep their Test supremacy intact when they take on England in the first Test on July 21

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