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India and the West Indies have an eloquent history of cricketing encounters against each other, and the "Utsav Zone" celebrates just that. Moments of glory, performances to cherish, matches to remember for a lifetime - we pick them out from the 70 Tests and 66 one-dayers these two teams have fought over. Packaged together, the "Utsav Zone" presents you genuine cause to celebrate the sport's rich and hoary past.
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Amarnath's finest hour
© ICC |
As a batsman, Mohinder Amarnath in 1983 was scalding hot. After
plundering a Pakistan attack led by Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz, he
put a West Indian attack composed of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding,
Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Winston Davis, among others, to the
sword in the Test series in the Caribbean. The final day of the final
Test of that India - West Indies series was to provide the finest
moment in the gutsy cricketer's career.
The West Indies came into the match with a 2-0 lead that had already
sealed the series in their favour. On April 28, the day the Test
began, Clive Lloyd won the toss and put the Indians in. A century from
Ravi Shastri - his second in his Test career - and nineties from Dilip
Vengsarkar and Kapil Dev, captaining India for the first time in a
Test series, saw the tourists post 457 in their first innings.
© CricInfo |
When the West Indies replied, four of their batsmen - Gordon
Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, wicket-keeper Jeff Dujon and captain Clive
Lloyd - made centuries. It was the first occasion such a feat was
achieved by the West Indies batsmen at home. Dujon's hundred was also
the first time that a 'keeper scored a Test hundred at Antigua; it
would be another 19 years before Ajay Ratra and Ridley Jacobs emulated
him. Even the rare failure of Antigua's favourite son, Viv Richards,
was forgotten as the West Indies piled on 550 in reply.
With the Test headed for an inevitable draw, the last modicum of
excitement on the final day centered on whether Amarnath would score
the 51 runs required to make him the fastest to a 1,000 Test runs in a
calender year. An early dismissal of Sunil Gavaskar in the Indian
innings meant that Amarnath had all the time in the world to
accomplish the feat.
Settling in his by now famous one-eyed stance, Amarnath began to score
runs with encouraging freedom. Soon he was celebrating another Test
half-century, as also his 1,000th run of the calender year. It was
just the third day of the fifth month of the year when the landmark
was raised.
Buoyed by his world-record, Amarnath went on to score his seventh Test
hundred, his second of the series. His 200-run second-wicket
partnership with Anshuman Gaekwad (72) in the match still remains a
record for that wicket against the West Indies at Antigua. In all,
Amarnath scored 598 runs in the series - an achievement that was to
establish his reputation as one of the best players of fast bowling in
the world.
© CricInfo
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