Umpire AR Joshi may have delayed India's first Test win by three years?
(25 October 2002)

With Everton Weekes scoring runs by the bucketful, the West Indies led 1-0 when they took on hosts India in the fifth and final Test of the inaugural series between the two sides in February 1949. But Bombay, the venue of the Test, was to see India mount a glorious fightback that almost saw them conjure up a series-levelling win.

The nerve-racking ending could not have been predicted when the West Indies, after opting to bat, made 286 before proceeding to dismiss the Indians for 193. With opener Allan Rae making 97 and Weekes contributing 48, the visitors went on to extend their overall lead to 360 by the time their second essay ended. This left India with 395 minutes of playing time in which to chase what many thought was an improbable fourth-innings target of 361.

Vijay Hazare, India's premier batsman, had other ideas. With able support forthcoming from number three bat Russi Modi (86), Hazare ensured that his team made a serious bid to secure a win. As the duo prospered, the West Indies began to fear that the game was slipping. India were 200 for three and closing in on the target when West Indies vice-captain Gerry Gomez, after discussions with George Headley, prompted his captain Trevor Goddard to go on the defensive in the post-lunch session.

Gomez recounts the happenings in Mihir Bose's History of Indian Cricket. "It looked as if the rate of scoring was getting out of hand. So we decided to pack the leg-side field. There were two men behind square, there was one on the deep backward boundary, a mid-on, mid-wicket and one more on the leg-side, six in all on the leg-side and just three on the off-side with a cover very short to stop the single. We bowled so that the batsmen could not drive, we bowled across the batsmen going down the leg-stump. It was negative tactics but we were quite entitled to use negative tactics. It was within the law."

Hazare and Modi were initially baffled. With the run-rate beginning to fall, Modi was forced to improvise and he perished in his attempt to get the innings back on track. Hazare and Dattu Phadkar, though, ensured that the loss was not keenly felt, finding a way to counter the negative tactics and keeping the scorecard ticking.

Hazare soon marched past a well-deserved century and reached 122 before being hit on his head by a bouncer from fast bowler Prior Jones. The blow seemed to unsettle him and he was dismissed soon after. Hemu Adhikari and Shute Banerjee, the next two batsmen, made brief stays as India were reduced to a position where they needed 40 with effectively one wicket in hand - wicket-keeper Probir Sen being injured and unable to bat.

The odds that had favoured India for most of the day were suddenly spelling out a West Indian win. A hard-hitting Dattu Phadkar, though, did not let this deter him, and with number 10 Ghulam Ahmed for company, guided India ever closer to the target. Soon, 21 runs were needed off 15 balls, and it was the West Indies who were feeling the heat. A calculating Goddard decided to summon the aid of the laws and call for drinks in a bid to use up precious minutes.

But once play resumed, India got themselves into a position where they needed just 11 runs off two overs. It was as good a chance as any, and when the target came down to six runs off seven balls, the spectators milling around the ground began to sense a historic maiden Indian Test win. After all, there were another one-and-a-half minutes to go, and with Phadkar around anything was possible. But their dreams were dashed dramatically when umpire Anant Ramchandra Joshi, in the heat of the moment, miscounted and prematurely called it an over and a day.

When the West Indies left the field, the visiting players, particularly Goddard, were jeered off the field. But that was a price that they were prepared to pay. As Gomez explained in the History of Indian Cricket, "You don't carry on and get clobbered just because you think it is sporting.You are playing Test cricket. It is a serious thing."

The thwarted Indians, for their part, had to wait another three years before they finally beat England at Chepauk in February 1952 to register their maiden Test win.