Prasanna, Hadlee shine in drawn series
Partab Ramchand - 13 December 2002
The Indian team in 1967-68 came to New Zealand after completing
their tour of Australia. Eight years later, it was again a dual
tour but on this occasion the Indians first visited New Zealand
before going on to the West Indies.
By this time New Zealand were no longer the weakest team among
the cricketing nations. They had won a series in Pakistan, come
tantalizingly close to repeating the feat in India, shared a
rubber in West Indies and registered their first victory over
Australia. The years preceding the series had seen New Zealand
produce world-class players in Glenn Turner, Richard Hadlee and
Ken Wadsworth while experienced hands like Richard Collinge,
Dayle Hadlee, Bevan Congdon, Headley Howarth and Mark Burgess
were still around.
It was thus always on the cards that the three-match Test series
to be held in January-February 1976 would be closely contested
and it indeed was. India won the first Test at Auckland by eight
wickets, the rain-affected second Test at Christchurch was drawn
while New Zealand drew level by taking the final Test at
Wellington by an innings and 33 runs.
The Indians were by no means a weak side. The spin quartet was at
their peak while the batting revolved around Sunil Gavaskar,
Gundappa Viswanath, Brijesh Patel and the Amarnath brothers
Surinder and Mohinder while a lot was expected from `new boy'
Dilip Vengsarkar. Also for once, the Indians were not handicapped
in the new-ball department. Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal not
only made sure that India would make early breakthroughs but the
two did a lot of stock bowling too.
The windy conditions encouraged seam bowling and in the second
Test there was the unusual sight of the two Indian opening
bowlers sending down a total of 68.1 overs between them to take
nine wickets while Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrasekhar sent down 64
overs to capture just one wicket between them.
But if the conditions helped Madan Lal and Mohinder then it was
obvious that New Zealand's seam trio of Richard Collinge and the
Hadlee brothers Richard and Dayle would relish the conditions
even more. The pitches for the second and third Tests were seam
oriented and in the cold, blistery conditions, Collinge (6 for
63) and Dayle Hadlee (3 for 76) restricted the Indian first
innings total to 270.
In the final Test, Richard Hadlee was in his elements. Reveling
in the windy conditions at the Basin Reserve, the future world-
record holder had match figures of 11 for 58 to star in New
Zealand's first-ever victory by an innings. He was particularly
devastating in the second innings, taking seven for 23 as India
collapsed for 81, the lowest total in contests between the two
countries.
Earlier, India won the first Test with a day to spare in
conditions suiting spin bowling. Prasanna with figures of three
for 64 and eight for 76 was the star and in the process he
overtook Vinoo Mankad's long-standing record of 162 Test wickets
- the highest tally by an Indian.
Another stellar performance came from Surinder Amarnath who
emulated his father's feat of scoring a hundred on Test debut.
With Lala Amarnath having got a century in his first Test against
England at Bombay 42 years before, it made the duo the first
father-son combination to achieve this feat in Test cricket. The
left-handed Surinder who got 124, dominated a record second
wicket partnership of 204 runs with Gavaskar (116). Chandrasekhar
too played a notable role in the victory taking six for 94 in the
first innings.
Gavaskar stood in as captain for the regular tour captain Bishan
Bedi who sustained a leg injury on the eve of the Test and he
emulated Polly Umrigar by leading India to victory in his first
Test as captain.
Thereafter however the tide turned against the tourists in
conditions generally alien to them. New Zealand had the better of
the drawn second Test and clearly outplayed India in the final
game of the series. Viswanath came up with two fine knocks of 83
and 79 at Christchurch while Patel contributed a fighting 81 at
Wellington. Syed Kirmani who made his Test debut in the series
equaled the world record of six dismissals in an innings then
shared by Wally Grout, John Murray and Dennis Lindsay.
But these were a few crumbs of comfort for the tourists towards
the latter half of the tour when New Zealand had the better share
of the exchanges. Besides the bowling of Collinge and the Hadlee
brothers, New Zealand were well served by the batting. Turner got
New Zealand's only century of the series in the second Test while
Burgess came up with a stroke-filled 95 in the third Test and
veteran Bevan Congdon displayed his consistency with successive
scores of 54, 54, 58 and 52.
© CricInfo
Teams
|
India,
New Zealand.
|
Players/Umpires
|
Erapalli Prasanna,
Sir Richard Hadlee,
Dayle Hadlee,
Glenn Turner,
Ken Wadsworth,
Bevan Congdon,
Hedley Howarth,
Mark Burgess,
Sunny Gavaskar,
Gundappa Viswanath,
Mohinder Amarnath,
Madan Lal,
Bishan Bedi,
V.B.Chandrasekhar,
Wally Grout,
Denis Lindsay.
|
Tours
|
India in New Zealand
|