Television was yet to rule Indian cricket in the summer of 1990 when Mohammad Azharuddin brought his merry band to England. The two-match (yes, two-match) one-day series were live on Doordarshan, the state-owned monopoly television channel, but for the Tests, it was back to good old Johnners and company, and we were none the worse for it, for their words painted pictures no television camera could ever do. The Lord's Test was memorable for many things, but it was amazing how one performance continued to overshadow another. Graham Gooch made maximum capital of Azharuddin's astounding decision to field first – and from a gift from Indian wicketkeeper Kiran More, who dropped a regulation catch when Gooch was on 36 – and went on to mount an epic 333.

Then Azharuddin came in and batted as if he wanted to erase the memory of his blunder from public consciousness. He scored 121 magical runs in just over two hours, his hundred came off 88 balls and contained 22 fours. It was a genius expressing himself at his eloquent best. It was hard to imagine that an innings of such splendour could be upstaged, that too in the course of the same innings.

Yet Kapil Dev did just that, and he just needed four balls to do it. For sheer courage and derring do, nothing can ever equal his four sixes in row off Eddie Hemmings that took India past the follow-on mark. His face lights up in the memory of that over even after 12 years. The day after he was crowned the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century, Kapil sat over a cup of tea in the hotel lounge and described what happened in the space of those five minutes.

"We had 24 runs to avoid the follow-on when Narendra Hirwani came to join me. He was a good bowler, but his batting was hopeless. I knew not only did I have to score all the runs, but play all the balls too. Eddie Hemmings was bowling and he was the kind of bowler I love. Slow, gentle and coming into me. If it was a left-arm spinner bowling, I wouldn't have even attempted what I did.

"Of course, it would be preposterous to suggest that I had planned for those sixes. My batting was always based on instinct and natural ability. People say that I could have scored 8000 runs had I applied myself, but I think I would have ended up with far less wickets then. I always considered myself a bowler first and my job was to think how to get batsmen out. Yes, when I look back now, I can say that I could have done a bit more with the bat. But as things stood then, the runs were a bonus, for me and my team. But that day, I was thinking a bit.

"I played out the first two balls from Hemmings, trying to lull him into believing that I was not going to try anything fancy. The first six was premeditated. I knew that he would give the ball a bit of air, and I was ready. I hit it off the middle of the bat, and the ball sailed over long-on. I'd say I out-thought the bowler with the second one. Normally, a bowler wouldn't expect the batsman to try the same shot next ball. So Hemmings tossed it up again, and out it went, from the middle of the bat again.

"But with the third ball, I must confess, I was a little unsure. My mind told me that I should perhaps look for a single, or just even play it down. The ball was a little shorter and I launched forward, looking for a tickle somewhere. But suddenly I found the ball pretty close to me, and I just went for it instinctively. It didn't hit the middle, but there was still enough to carry it over the head of long-on.

"But for the last ball, I knew that I should be looking for a single for sure. Hemmings bowled it even a little shorter, and I was looking for the area behind square leg. I took big stride forward, but once again I found the ball at hittable distance. I was playing from memory now. It was the least clean of the hits, but it carried.

"Hirwani got out to the first ball he faced, and straightaway I was trudging back to bowl the first ball of England's second innings."

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