Part II: Fond memories from Port of Spain

Sunil Gavaskar's favourite ground abroad is the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, for good reason. But then again, why Gavaskar's alone? It would probably rank among the favourite foreign venues of many other Indian cricketers too. After all, where else has India registered two famous Test victories abroad? If the win in 1971 was significant and historic, the triumph five years later was, to put it simply, one of the greatest in the history of Test cricket, verily a miracle.

When India took the field on the opening day of the second Test of the 1971 series, it was the 25th encounter between the two countries, and India had not won any of the previous 24. Indeed, in 23 Tests, India had not even taken the first innings lead and had achieved this feat only in the previous Test at Kingston. Given their infamous record abroad, the visitors were given little chance of winning the second Test, but it was reckoned that a draw was not beyond them.

Historic as that victory was, it pales before the scale of achievement of the 1976 triumph. The third Test of the four-match series was to have been played at Georgetown but was shifted to Port of Spain because of incessant rain in Guyana.

The first signs that India could emerge victorious came on the first day when West Indies were all out for 214. Now the onus was on the Indian batsmen to consolidate the good work done by the bowlers, and a 21-year-old debutant named Sunil Gavaskar provided the perfect springboard with a patient 65. Ashok Mankad came good with a valuable 44, and the two put on 68 runs for the first wicket. The in-form Dilip Sardesai, who had scored a double hundred in the previous Test, this time got 112 and with Eknath Solkar (55) added 114 runs for the fifth wicket. Despite the Herculean performance of Jack Noreiga, the off- spinner who took nine for 95, India obtained a first innings lead of 138 runs. But, by scoring 150 for one in their second innings by stumps on the third day, West Indies came back strongly.

The match seemed to hang in the balance as the fourth day commenced, but first Salim Durrani and then Srinivas Venkatraghavan got among the wickets. The veteran left-arm spinner dismissed Clive Lloyd and Garfield Sobers (for a duck) in one over, and then the off-spinner polished off the tail. West Indies were bowled out for 261, leaving India to get only 124 runs for victory. Not wasting any time, the Indians, spearheaded by another fine innings by Gavaskar (67 not out), who capped a memorable debut by hitting the winning boundary, were home shortly before stumps on the penultimate day for the loss of just three wickets. It was the sole decisive result of the five-match rubber, and that is why the 1971 Port of Spain triumph is doubly famous.

Historic as that victory was, it pales before the scale of achievement of the 1976 triumph. The third Test of the four-match series was to have been played at Georgetown but was shifted to Port of Spain because of incessant rain in Guyana. West Indies, already one up in the series, led off with 359, thanks in the main to a mighty 177 by Vivian Richards, then in the midst of the golden run that was to get him a record 1710 runs during the year.

When India were all out for 228, West Indies had all the time in the world to consolidate, which they did admirably. With Alvin Kallicharran getting an unbeaten 103, Lloyd was able to declare at 271 for six, midway through the afternoon of the fourth day. This left India a victory target of 403, in the face of which the chase seemed just a formality. West Indies had ample opportunity to register their second victory of the series ­ which would have given them the rubber ­ and it would have been a Herculean effort for India to even draw the match. After all, there had been only one precedent in nearly 800 Test matches of a team scoring over 400 runs to win, and that was in 1948 when the Australians, led by Bradman, defeated England at Leeds.

However, displaying a positive, never-say-die attitude, the Indians picked up the gauntlet. Openers Gavaskar and Anshuman Gaekwad, paired together for the first time, put on 69 runs; then Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath added 108 runs for the second wicket. The dismissal of Gavaskar for 102 at 177 early on the final morning was a major blow, but Gundappa Viswanath and Amarnath brought the target firmly into focus by figuring in a third-wicket association of 159 runs. "India planned their tactics with the perfection of a cricketing Lester Piggott, " Tony Cozier was to write later. Believing that no target was beyond them, the Indians relentlessly pushed on towards glory. After Viswanath left, having made 112, Amarnath, who had played the sheet anchor role to perfection, and Brijesh Patel carried the Indians to the doorstep of victory before the former was run out for 85, made in 442 minutes.

By the time he left, though, an unbelievable victory was just round the corner, and Patel (49 not out) hastened it with some splendid shots, the winning runs being hit with seven of the 20 mandatory overs still left. The closing total of 406 for four set a record for the highest score ever to win a Test match. It still constitutes one of the most remarkable victories in Test cricket and, for many, it is still India's greatest ever triumph.

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