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Shah Nyalchand: India’s matting-wicket specialist

Shah Nyalchand played only one Test for India.

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Shah Nyalchand. Photo courtesy: India Net Zone
Shah Nyalchand. Photo courtesy: India Net Zone

Shah Nyalchand, born September 14, 1919, enjoyed an excellent domestic career that spanned the quarter of a century. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at a champion whose numbers suggest he could have been a champion at the highest level if nurtured properly.

Despite being a contemporary of Fazal Mahmood, Frank Worrell had called Shah Nyalchand “the king of matting wickets”. The compliment would have sufficient to assess the pedigree of Nyalchand, but we can always delve into the numbers to assess the pedigree of Nyalchand. A medium-pacer who stood at only 5’7”, Nyalchand had a distinguished Ranji Trophy career as player and captain.

He had played domestic cricket in an era when Indian pitches were at their placid best (or worst, depending on the perspective of the reader) where the likes of Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, and Rusi Modi piled up runs by the hundreds. When the pitches deteriorated, the spinners were always there to pick up hard-earned wickets.

Indian seamers used to be all-rounders in those days: Lala Amarnath, Hazare, Dattu Phadkar, Gulabrai Ramchand, and Chandrasekhar Gadkari could walk into the contemporary Indian Test side as batsmen, while Ranga Sohoni and Shute Banerjee kept on playing odd innings at First-Class level.

Not Nyalchand, who maintained an average of 7.63 in his First-Class career; it was with his left-arm seam that he made a mark for a quarter of a century. In an exceptional career that spanned 57 matches, Nyalchand finished with 235 wickets at 22.57 with 15 five-wicket hauls and six ten-wicket hauls. He also did a decent job in his only Test but never got recalled.

Nyalchand played only 29 matches for Saurashtra, but some of his records still stand:

– No other Saurashtra bowler has taken 7 wickets in an innings twice. Nyalchand, in fact, had done it thrice.

– Despite being a seamer, Nyalchand is the only Saurashtra bowler to have sent down over 50 overs in an innings thrice.

– His 438 balls (73-24-123-5) against Baroda in 1949-50 remains the most number of balls sent down by a Saurashtra bowler. Uday Joshi later emulated him with 73-20-136-1 against Bihar in 1981-82.

Early days

Born in Dhrangadhara, Gujarat, Nyalchand made his First-Class debut for Western India against Sind. He managed a solitary wicket, but was persisted with. In his third match (which came the next season) he routed Nawanagar with 7 for 38 and 3 for 47. He bettered the match haul with 6 for 63 and 5 for 53 against Baroda in 1942-43.

With Western India (or Kathiawar, or Saurashtra) not being one of the champion sides, opportunities were limited. Nyalchand first made an impression when he bowled out Frank Worrell’s Commonwealth XI for 199 in 1950-51: he claimed 6 for 88. He came close to a Test debut when MCC toured India and played Saurashtra. Chasing 112 the tourists were cruising at 66 for 1 when Nyalchand struck: he finished with 5 for 36 as MCC won the humdinger by 2 wickets.

Test debut

The big opportunity came next season. India had gone up in the series against Pakistan by winning the first Test at Kotla thanks to Vinoo Mankad’s 13-wicket haul. The second Test was scheduled on the coir-matting wicket of University Ground, Lucknow; Nyalchand made his debut in the place of Ramchand.

Unfortunately, the Pakistanis were more experienced in batting or bowling on matting wickets. The Indians were left clueless against Fazal’s bowling and were bowled out for 106. Fazal finished with 5 for 52 while Mahmood Hussain and Maqsood Ahmed shared the other two wickets. Coming out at 85 for 8 Nyalchand remained unbeaten on 6 as debutant Hiralal Gaekwad and Ghulam Ahmed added 21.

Then the Indians ran into Nazar Mohammad, who not only scored the first Test hundred for Pakistan, but also carried his bat through the innings. The 515-minute epic resulted in 124. Nyalchand did a decent job: when the tourists seemed to be running away with the match at 167 for 4 he struck thrice: he trapped Maqsood leg-before, had Abdul Hafeez Kardar caught by Ghulam, and clean bowled Anwar Hussain.

He toiled hard, but Fazal and Zulfiqar Ahmed helped Nazar Mohammad add valuable runs, helping Pakistan reach 331 after they were 201 for 7. Nyalchand finished with figures of 64-33-97-3. The innings tally of 384 balls remains the fifth-highest in history for any Test debutant and the second-highest for a seamer. He had bowled his heart out, but Nazar Mohammad and his mates were perhaps too good for the Indian attack.

India capitulated for 182 in their second innings with Fazal (7 for 42) leading the rout again. Nyalchand, batting at No. 11, was trapped leg-before by Fazal for 1. Playing for West Zone against the Pakistanis he took 6 for 116 in the match, but for some inexplicable reason he never played another Test.

Later years

Nyalchand moved to Gujarat for a season before coming back to Saurashtra, for whom he continued to play for over a decade. In 1957 he toured East Africa with Sunder Cricket Club, Bombay, but managed only four wickets from three matches. Against Gujarat in 1960-61 he achieved his best match haul when he finished with 7 for 69 and 5 for 75. However, his batsmen let him down: they were bowled out for 88 and 90 against Jasu Patel and Jayanti Desai and lost by plenty.

The following season he achieved another feat. Now the captain of Saurashtra he ran through Baroda with 4 for 32. In the second innings he came up with his career-best haul of 7 for 32. He also became the second Saurashtra bowler after D Narottam to take a hat-trick in the second innings.

The match was the second of three consecutive ones in each of which Nyalchand took a ten-wicket haul. He had earlier picked up 6 for 49 and 4 for 50 against Maharashtra, and followed it with 5 for 41 and 5 for 62, also against Maharashtra — albeit in the next season.

Nyalchand played for another season. In his last match, against Baroda, he finished with 4 for 49, but as has often been the case, Saurashtra were bowled out for 90 and 107 and lost by an innings.

Final days

A matriculate from Sir Ajitsinhji High School, Dhrangadhara, Nyalchand became a draftsman at Public Works Department (PWD) Gujarat. He also became a cricket coach.

Shah Nyalchand passed away from a massive heart attack on January 4, 1997. He was 77.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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