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58 all out and 82 all out: India bowled out twice in a day!

India became the first team to be bowled out twice in the same day of a Test.

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Fred Trueman bowls in the third Test against India at Old Trafford, Manchester, on July 19, 1952. Trueman had analysis of 8.4-2-31-8 and 8-5-9-1. India lost 20 wickets on day three, shot out for 58 and 82, to lose the Test by an innings and 207 runs © Getty Images
Fred Trueman had of 8.4-2-31-8 and 8-5-9-1 in the Test. India lost 20 wickets on Day Three, shot out for 58 and 82, to lose the Test by an innings and 207 runs © Getty Images

On July 19, 1952 India were bowled out for 58 and 82 on a single day at Old Trafford. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the first time when a side has been bowled out twice in a single day of a Test.

Vijay Hazare’s Indians were flattened, de-motivated, and completely devastated by the time they had reached Old Trafford for the third Test of 1952. They knew they had to contend with the art of Alec Bedser, but the jolt actually came from a young Yorkshireman called Fred Trueman.

Trueman was unlike anything the Indians had seen before. Then wild look, the unkempt shaggy mane, the athletic run-up, the fluid side-on action, the raw, intimidating pace, the movement off the pitch, the abrupt bounce, and the unfamiliar curse-words were too much for the Indians who were still new to world cricket.

As Stephen Brenkley wrote in The Independent, “Trueman embodied the notion of a tough fast bowler…He was extremely fast with a lethal outswinger.” These were understatements.

On his Test debut at his home ground in Headingley India were reduced to 42 for 3. Then Hazare and Vijay Manjrekar, the ‘baby’ of the side, added 222 for the fourth wicket before India collapsed to 293. Ghulam Ahmed, however, had made sure that India conceded a lead of only 41. India were inside the match and a good opening stand could well have put them in a winning position.

Then it happened: India infamously lost 4 wickets without a single run on the board! Hazare and Dattu Phadkar salvaged some pride with a 105-run sixth wicket partnership, but they were soon skittled out for 165 by Roly Jenkins. India had scored 448 in the Test — of which 327 had come from only two partnerships.

A defeat by seven wickets does not really sound that bad, but the psychological impact of 0 for 4 was huge: Hazare requested BCCI to ask for Vinoo Mankad (left out of the side and playing for Haslingden in the Lancashire League) for the Lord’s Test. He put up a heroic effort at Lord’s in what is usually referred to as “Mankad’s Test”: he scored 72 and 184, and picked up 5 for 196 in the first innings. He sent down 97 overs in the Test but lacked support of any kind, and India lost by 8 wickets.

The Herculean effort, however, had possibly increased the confidence of the Indians. Hazare, however, had possibly made a major blunder in making the senior players play most matches, resting the juniors. The Indian side was woefully short of cricketers with prior experience in England and the quixotic decision certainly did not help their cause.

Old Trafford

England, up 2-0 in the series, won the toss and elected to bat on what seemed to be a perfect batting Old Trafford wicket. Captain Len Hutton batted serenely, adding 78 with David Sheppard, 55 with Jack Ikin, and 81 with Peter May before being caught behind off Ramesh Divecha for a well-compiled 315-minute 104 early on Day Two. With his 56th run he went past Jack Hobbs’ tally of 5,410 Test runs, setting a new English record.

May followed soon for 69, and it took some lusty blows from Godfrey Evans to allow Hutton to declare the innings closed at 347 for 9. The wicket-keeper scored 71 in 78 minutes out of only 84 scored during his stay at the wicket. He hit 9 fours and a six.

For India, Divecha picked up 3 wickets while Ghulam Ahmed — clobbered by Evans towards the end of the innings — ended up picking three as well. India went out to bat early on Day Three on a pitch that “appeared to be easy” as per Wisden.

58 all out

The Indian innings began in spectacular fashion: Mankad, opening the batting, hit a boundary off Alec Bedser, but was almost immediately caught brilliantly by Tony Lock at short-leg, who was making his debut in the match.

Then Trueman took over. He managed to extract unreal bounce off a good-length from the Old Trafford pitch which accounted for Pankaj Roy almost immediately before the Bengal opener could open his account. Hemu Adhikari fell for a duck as well off a lifter.

Hazare hung around grimly, but Polly Umrigar disappointed. Being dismissed was something else — almost every Indian batsman was uncomfortable against Trueman in the series. What Umrigar did, however, was something different.

Mihir Bose wrote in A History of Indian Cricket: “Hazare found it disturbing that Umrigar backed away to square-leg when he faced Trueman. Physically he looked the best equipped of the Indians to stand up to pace. Here was a man who looked like a mighty batsman: a six-foot tall, well-built Parsee with massive forearms that bulged as he drove and cut the ball.”

Umrigar lost his stumps, moving away towards square-leg as Trueman charged in and rattled the stumps with nothing blocking his view. Phadkar perished next ball, and at 17 for 5 there was a possibility for India to be bowled out for less than 58 — their lowest Test total, scored against Australia at Gabba in 1947-48.

The two Vijays — Hazare and Manjrekar — added a painstaking 28 for the sixth wicket before Trueman removed Manjrekar again. Manjrekar had tried to hit out in his 25-minute 22, but to no avail. His wicket gave Trueman his first five-for. Soon afterwards, Trueman hit Divecha’s stumps.

Fred Trueman's attacking field to Pankaj Roy © Getty Images
Fred Trueman’s attacking field to Pankaj Roy © Getty Images

Trueman had bowled with three slips, three gullys, two short-legs and a short mid-off: every chance was taken and not a single loose run was given away. Even if the Indians had survived the hostile pace and bounce they were simply choked into submission by the English fielders.

The Glasgow Herald wrote: “Lock, Sheppard, and Ikin, who did not play at Lord’s, excelled in the close field. Indeed, England have seldom reached this standard of fielding since the great days of Chapman and Larwood, for Hutton and Graveney also took brilliant catches close to the wicket.”

Then came the big wicket: Hazare had been battling on hard, keeping Bedser and Trueman at bay before Bedser ran through his defence. The Indian captain had batted for over an hour for his 16. Trueman ran through the tail and India were bowled out for 58 in 21.4 overs.

Trueman finished with figures of 8.4-2-31-8. These were the best figures by an Englishman at Old Trafford and the joint second-best at the ground, equalling Frank Laver’s 8 for 31 in the 1909 Ashes. Trueman’s figures are still the best figures by a fast bowler at Old Trafford (though it has been emulated by Jim Laker twice in the same Test).

Wisden did not hold anything back in showering praises: “Bowling down wind at extreme speed, making the ball whip from the ground and often rear nastily, Trueman was the chief instrument in India’s rout.”

82 all out

Hutton naturally asked India to follow-on. Roy registered a pair when he gave Trueman his first wicket in the second innings, while Bedser trapped Mankad leg-before. There was some resistance from Hazare and Adhikari who added 48 for the third wicket.

Hutton then tossed the ball to Lock. The debutant had not got a bowl in the first innings  thanks to Trueman’s rampage. Hazare fell soon to give Lock his first Test wicket and Umrigar succumbed almost immediately to Bedser. Thereafter it was a procession as India became 67 for 8 from 66 for 4.

Probir Sen hit out with three boundaries and remained unbeaten on 13. Bedser removed Divecha to pick up his five-for and Lock rounded things off by removing Ghulam Ahmed for a duck.

India were bowled out for 82 in 36.3 overs. They were bowled out twice in three hours 40 minutes. Bedser returned figures of 5 for 27 while Lock had 4 for 36 on his debut. Trueman was not required to bowl a second spell and had to remain content with nine wickets in the Test.

The Glasgow Herald wrote: “Bedser, bowling with the wind, was as devastating after tea as Trueman had been before and after lunch, and Lock took full advantage from the pitch”.

The match total of 140 eclipsed India’s lowest aggregate of 156 at Gabba in 1947-48. It still remains India’s lowest Total in a Test. They lasted only 349 balls in the Test, which also remains India’s worst (the next on the list, 440 against South Africa at Kingsmead in 1996-97, is quite a distance away).

Wisden labelled India’s performance as “a surprising amount of irresolute batting”. Advocate wrote: “India could not blame the pitch or the luck of the toss. The match was lost because at the inability of the batsmen to face up to fast, accurate seam bowling.”

India became the first team ever to be bowled out twice on the same day of a Test. The ‘feat’ has been achieved twice more: on both occasions Zimbabwe had succumbed to New Zealand — for 59 and 99 at Harare in 2005-06 and for 51 and 143 at Napier in 2011-12.

What followed?

– India were bowled out for 98 (Bedser and Trueman took five wickets apiece) in the last Test at The Oval but got away due to rain. They lost the series 0-3.

– Trueman finished the series with 29 wickets from 4 Tests at 13.31 and a strike rate of 24.7. He would later become the first man to pick up 300 Test wickets. The 8 for 31 remained his career-best figures.

– Bedser supported Trueman brilliantly with 20 wickets at 13.95, albeit with a strike rate of 49.1.

– Umrigar finished the series with 43 runs at 6.14. He fell to Trueman four times. As Bose had pointed out, three of them came when he backed away towards square-leg.

Brief scores:

England 347 for 9 decl (Len Hutton 104, Godfrey Evans 71, Peter May 69; Ghulam Ahmed 3 for 43, Ramesh Divecha 3 for 102) beat India 58 (Fred Trueman 8 for 31) and 82 (Alec Bedser 5 for 27, Tony Lock 4 for 36) by an innings and 207 runs.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is a cricket historian and Senior Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He generally looks upon life as a journey involving two components – cricket and literature – though not as disjoint elements. A passionate follower of the history of the sport with an insatiable appetite for trivia and anecdotes, he has also a steady love affair with the incredible assortment of numbers that cricket has to offer. He also thinks he can bowl decent leg-breaks in street cricket, and blogs at http://ovshake.blogspot.in. He can be followed on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ovshake and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ovshake42.)

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