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Mohandas Menon & Roshan Paul Australia's second visit to India, in the winter of 1959-60, was another series lost to a clearly superior team and further emphasised the quality-gap between India and the stronger teams of those days. However, the trip did see India's first ever Test match triumph against the Aussies, who were clearly the best team in the world at that time. Richie Benaud, India's tormentor in 1956, led the Australians. The Indian team, however, was dogged with controversy even before the first ball was bowled. Pankaj Roy recalls "The suspense of who would be captain was intense. It was between Umrigar and myself. But they passed us both and gave it to Ramchand." G.S. Ramchand was a useful seam bowler and a hard hitting lower order batsman. But this didn't go down too well with the team. "Ramchand wasn't worth his place in the team as a player; and yet he was made captain," said Roy. Over 40 years have passed, and it is clear that the slight still rankles for the Bengali batsman. The Australians won the first Test at Delhi easily, as Benaud and Kline bowled them to a victory, based on a century from Neil Harvey, who was making his second visit to India as well. In the first innings, Benaud captured 3 wickets without giving a single run away. Pankaj Roy's battling 99 in the second innings would be the second highest individual score of the series for India.
India Chasing a meagre Indian score of 152, Australia was 128/1 when Patel entered the party. He took 9/69 as the Australians lost their last nine wickets for 91 runs. Set 225 to win in their second innings on a tricky wicket, the Australians were under pressure. Patel and surprisingly, Polly Umrigar then combined forces to bowl the visitors out for 105.
India So India won their first ever test match against the Australians. And all thanks to a surprise inclusion. Patel's match figures of 14/124 was the high point of the game, overshadowing Alan Davidson who picked up 12 wickets only to end up on the losing team. However, Patel was never able to come close to this kind of success ever again and faded away after a few more tests. In Kanpur in December 1959, Jasu Patel experienced his 15 minutes of fame. After the drama and euphoria of Kanpur, everyone looked forward to Bombay and the third Test. However, this was largely uneventful and ended in a desultory draw. It did, however, see a wonderful century from Nari Contractor, in the days before he was tragically felled by Charlie Griffith.
India By now Australia had a point to prove and they did it in style. Despite only putting up 342 in their first innings, they routed Ramchand's men by more than an innings in the fourth Test at Madras. Richie Benaud picked up 8 wickets in the match as India failed to reach 150 in either innings.
Australia Like the third Test, the fifth, at Eden Gardens, was a draw. But not by much. Set 203 to win in the fourth innings in as much as 52 overs, the Aussies were content to bat out time to end at a comfortable 121/2. While this may seem highly unusual in today's era of one-day cricket and quick scoring, times were pretty different back then.
India
Thus, a disappointing decade of Indian cricket ended appropriately with a series loss to the world's best team. However, the emergence in that series of the likes of the hard-hitting Budhi Kunderan behind the stumps, M.L. Jaisimha and Salim Durrani, as well as the success of Nari Contractor, provided hope for the 1960s.
Photographs: Allsport
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