Who was the only bowler to take a wicket during India's successful chase of 403 in 1976?
(10 May 2002)
A target of 403 would, in normal circumstances, be considered enough
of a buffer for the defending bowlers to add a few scalps to their
tally. The 1976 Test at Port of Spain, in which India successfully chased that Herculean target, saw only one bowler pick wickets in the
fourth innings.
Anshuman Gaekwad was the first to fall to left-arm spinner Raphick Jumadeen, having made 28 out of 69. Sunil Gavaskar made quite a few
more - 102 in all, to be exact - before he too fell to Jumadeed,
caught behind by Deryck Murray.
The other two wickets to fall - those of Mohinder Amarnath and
Gundappa Viswanath - succumbed to slick ground fielding; both Amarnath
and Viswanath were run out, not before they had scored 85 and 112
respectively, though.
Jumadeen finished with figures of 2-70 off 41 overs, much better than
his first-innings performance of 0-33. Even though the wickets came on
a fifth-day pitch, Jumadeen would have treasured them, representing as
they did an instance when he broke through where Bernard Julien and
Michael Holding could not.
But Jumadeen could unfortunately not win the Test for the West Indies.
Those two wickets went towards a final career haul of 29 in 12 Test
matches, a record not particularly impressive. The spinner was in fact
retained for the next Test match at Sabina Park, although he played a
relatively minor role as Holding, Julien, Vanburn Holder and Wayne
Daniel blew away their opponents with sheer pace.
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