da esport bet： The wide disparity between India’s home and away record is not a newphenomenon
Partab Ramchand05-Nov-2001Part 1: India celebrate in New ZealandThe wide disparity between India’s home and away record is not a newphenomenon. It is something that goes back to the early days of IndianTest cricket. From June 1932 to February 1968, India had played 104Tests, of which 43 were abroad. And India had not won even one Test inEngland, Australia, West Indies and Pakistan. All of India’s tenvictories till then had been achieved at home.
The Indian team, after a poor start in Australia, seemed to be cominginto their own towards the end of the tour and so were not entirelybereft of confidence when they landed in Dunedin for the first Test.And yet it was not until the New Zealand second innings got underwaythat India asserted itself and put itself on the road to victory.
There was some hope however that India would break the ice on theirmaiden trip to New Zealand in 1968, where the national team proceededto after their disastrous tour of Australia on which India had lostall four Tests. Not because the Indian team was particularly strong,but because the weakness of the New Zealand team was well known. NewZealand were the only team below India in the Test standings of thetime, even if there were no official rating system as is prevalentnow. Moreover, on both occasions that New Zealand had visited India,they had lost the series. If there was one country against which Indiadid enjoy the psychological advantage it was New Zealand. But thenIndia at the same time had to overcome the psychological disadvantagein that they had not won a single Test outside their own country andNew Zealand could proudly point out that they had drawn the last twocontests played in their own country, each a three Test series againstSouth Africa and England.The Indian team, after a poor start in Australia, seemed to be cominginto their own towards the end of the tour and so were not entirelybereft of confidence when they landed in Dunedin for the first Test.And yet it was not until the New Zealand second innings got underwaythat India asserted itself and put itself on the road to victory.Graham Dowling’s 143 and his record second wicket partnership of 155runs with Bevan Congdon (58) saw New Zealand get 350. Consistentbatting down the order saw India gain a first innings lead of nineruns. This was one of the rare occasions when all the Indian batsmenreached double figures and the scores ranged between 12 and 80. But itwas the last wicket stand of 57 between No 10 Ramakant Desai (32) andNo 11 Bishen Bedi (22) that really proved vital for it enabled them totake the lead. Desai, playing in the last of his 28 Tests, put up abrave show. Early in the innings, his jaw had been fractured by a ballfrom Dick Motz. But he continued batting and put on India’s best tenthwicket stand against New Zealand. In the second innings, ErapalliPrasanna (6 for 94) proved too strong for the home team batsmen andrestricted them to a total of 208. Left with a target of 200, Indiathanks chiefly to Ajit Wadekar (71), Rusi Surti (44) and their thirdwicket partnership of 103 runs, coasted home early on the finalmorning. Whatever the opposition, it was a victory to rejoice for noone could take away its historic aspect.The Indian team however suffered a setback a week later when, againstall expectations, they lost the second Test at Christchurch by sixwickets. A mighty 239 by the new captain Dowling New Zealand’s bestscore in Tests saw the home team rattle up 502 and India were thenalways struggling to stay in the game. The inability of any Indianbatsman to match Dowling or even come up with a century was a factorin the ultimate defeat for in the two innings, the top scores were 67and 63. India were all out for 288, and in the follow on hardly didany better getting 301. New Zealand knocked up the required 88 runsfor the loss of four wickets to register their first victory overIndia.Recovering quickly, the Indians showed New Zealand that they were thebetter team and in the next two weeks scored victories by eightwickets and 272 runs to take the series by a comfortable 3-1 margin.Prasanna (5 for 32) bowled out New Zealand for 186 in the firstinnings of the third Test at Wellington and then Wadekar played theanchor role to perfection in getting 143, his only Test century. Indiaobtained a first innings lead of 141 and then Nadkarni (6 for 43) ranthrough the New Zealand second innings in his penultimate Test. Aninadequate total of 199 left India with only the formality of getting59 runs to go ahead in the series again. The Indians displayed theirsuperiority in no uncertain terms in the final Test at Auckland. Eighthours and 20 minutes of playing time were lost on the first two daysbut the visitors took this in their stride. Though they wererestricted to 252, the Indians with Prasanna (4 for 44) again in fineform got a stranglehold early on the fourth morning by dismissing NewZealand for 140. Tey then consolidated their position by declaring thesecond innings at 261 for five on the fifth morning. Surti, out for99, was destined never to get a Test hundred. A victory target of 374was purely academic and the only interest was whether New Zealandwould save the game. Prasanna (4 for 40) and Bedi (3 for 14) made sureof a third Indian victory by dismissing the home team for 101. It notonly signaled India’s maiden series win abroad, but was also the firsttime that India had won three victories in any rubber. Prasanna’sbowling, which gave him 24 wickets, was the main highlight of theseries.