Published: Mar 06, 2015, 12:00 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 05, 2015, 10:12 PM (IST)
India and West Indies went in with four seamers each at WACA, Perth, on December 6, 1991. Abhishek Mukherjee re-lives a day of quality fast bowling that culminated in the tightest possible result.
India and West Indies had never met on Australian soil in an international match before Benson & Hedges World Series 1991-92. They had even managed to avoid each other till Benson & Hedges World Series 1984-85, where India met four of the six teams to lift the Trophy. With World Cup cricket looming on the horizon, West Indies was invited as the third team (along with Australia, the hosts, and India, who were also playing a five-Test series) of the tournament ahead of the World Cup.
In those days WACA had the kind of track we perceive it does today. The pitch was rock-hard with a green tinge; and with the Sun peeping only occasionally from behind the clouds, both captains — Mohammad Azharuddin and Richie Richardson — knew what was in store. While West Indies had Malcolm Marshall, Patrick Patterson, Curtly Ambrose, and Anderson Cummins, India drafted in debutant Subroto Banerjee with Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar, and Javagal Srinath.
Pace, fire, sparks, and the grit of Shastri
Richardson rightfully put India in. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, never one for technique, tried to place Patterson past gully, only to play it directly to Carl Hooper at second slip in the fifth over. Sanjay Manjrekar joined Ravi Shastri. Both men were thoroughbred Mumbaikars, and though they found it nigh-impossible to score off the pacemen from the Caribbean, they refused to throw it away.
Eventually Cummins broke through. Manjrekar did not look particularly happy with the caught-behind decision, and walked back for 15. The scorecard read 35 for 2, and it was the 18th over.
Shortly afterwards, little Sachin Tendulkar tried to loft one off Cummins but mistimed, and Richardson claimed the skier at mid-off. Azhar, not in the best of form on the tour, struggled against pace; runs seemed almost impossible to come by.
The introduction of Hooper brought some relief as Shastri off-drove him for three, and flicked Cummins for the first four of the match. Richardson brought back Ambrose, who struck immediately as Azhar slashed at one away from the body, and was caught behind to leave India at 58 for 4 in the 28th over.
Shastri stepped out against Hooper to drive him straight for four, but Richardson, sensing that he needed the tall man out of the way, recalled Marshall. Shastri, taking stance outside off, tried to cover-drive Marshall; unfortunately, the ball came faster than he had anticipated, and a youngster called Brian Lara took a flying catch at gully. Shastri’s 33 had taken him 110 balls, but it would remain the highest score of the match. The two boundaries he hit would also remain the only ones in India’s 284-ball innings.
Kapil holed out to Richardson at mid-wicket off Marshall, but Prabhakar held on grimly, providing support to Pravin Amre. The pair added a crucial 23 for the seventh wicket before Amre dropped one close to his feet and ran; the ball bounced and rolled behind the stumps, and David Williams beat Prabhakar.
The last three wickets went down in a flash. Kiran More played one to Hooper at backward point and set off, but Amre found himself short of the crease. More himself tried to clear mid-wicket off Ambrose and was caught by Richardson. And finally, a slim, sweater-clad Srinath was run out in a horrible misunderstanding with Banerjee. India were bowled out for 126 in 47.4 overs.
India had defended 183 against West Indies in the final of World Cup 1983 (and had won after scoring 125 against Pakistan), but surely 126 was too few?
Seamers’ day out
Kapil, of course, had seen it all. He had spearheaded the Indian attack on both occasions. But then, there was the small matter of Desmond Haynes between him and the wicket, but the great man produced the kind of delivery that made him a legend: the ball pitched on leg and middle, curved away at an improbable angle, and took the edge; More accepted it gleefully, and that was that. West Indies had lost Haynes first ball.
At the other end, Prabhakar gave nothing away, moving the ball into the right-handers at physics-defying angles. Philo Wallace was left clueless at one that jagged back; he tried to cut it, but the ball came back so sharply that he ended up playing a lame shot close to his body, and played on.
Then Kapil produced a beauty that landed on a length and moved away late. Richardson tried to hide his bat behind his front pad. The ball went past the pad, but kissed the edge on its way to More. At 25 for 3, West Indies needed another 102.
Lara and Hooper dug in. Kapil and Prabhakar bowled their hearts out, and when Azhar turned to Srinath and Banerjee for support, they lived up to the challenge. While Srinath extracted bounce to match Ambrose’s, Banerjee stuck to a probing line outside off, not letting an inch go.
Then Srinath struck: Hooper tried to shoulder arms to one, but the ball took inside edge and crashed on to the stumps. Keith Arthurton became the second West Indian to register a golden duck as Srinath’s ball pitched on leg stump and hit middle. At 55 for 5, West Indies needed 72; it was only the 20th over, but that did not matter.
Then Banerjee took charge with a triple-blow: Lara chased one outside off on its way to More; Williams survived when a skier fell just in front of Tendulkar (and went for four overthrows), but when he mistimed a lofted flick, Srikkanth ran backwards from forward short-leg to come up with an outstanding catch. Marshall’s 36-ball vigil (he scored 7) came to an end when he chased one and was caught-behind. Now 76 for 8, West Indies needed 51.
The giant fights back
The Indians still had the giant to contend with. Ambrose, all of 6’7,” his proud head clad only in a maroon cap, the feeble bat resembling a toothpick in his enormous hands, stood between India and victory. There was also young, defiant Cummins, who decided to dig in with his senior partner.
Marshall had fallen in the 29th over. There were 21 overs left, but the pace quartet could bowl only 11 of them. What should Azhar do? Take a risk and make them bowl out ten overs apiece? Or get Shastri and Tendulkar on,which would ensure his speedsters to prolong their spells?
Azhar chose the former, and went flat out in pursuit of wickets, and an intense battle followed. Cummins cover-drove Banerjee for four, and hoicked Srinath over point for three. The target came closer and closer.
Not to be outdone, Ambrose lofted Srinath into the stands over wide long-on. He did not celebrate. Instead, he brought the bat close to his lips and kissed the blade. Cummins drove Srinath past mid-off for four.
Thirteen required. Two wickets in hand. Back came Kapil. He pitched it up. Cummins hit one hard — perhaps a bit too hard — to Shastri at mid-off, and set off. The gigantic legs of Ambrose could not carry him fast enough for the 22-yard span as the direct hit found him short. They still required thirteen.
But Patterson hung around. Patterson — the man who would finish with 44 runs in 20 innings and would never reach 14 — suddenly seemed impossible to get out. Cummins and Patterson stole singles, and eventually the four fast bowlers bowled out their quota of 10 overs apiece.
West Indies needed 6 runs. Who would bowl the 41st over?
A throw of dice
Azhar could have gone for the safe option of Shastri. Instead, he went for the teenager; Tendulkar was already being hailed as potentially the greatest batsman of the generation, but what about his bowling?
The run-up was measured out. On came the curly-haired boy, smile intact, seam upright, jaw determined. Patterson connected and ran a single. Five more.
Cummins, looking confident by then, flicked Tendulkar to deep square-leg. Four more. Did Azhar err by choosing Tendulkar ahead of Shastri?
On came Tendulkar, and Patterson charged. The ball did not hit the middle, but still managed to beat mid-wicket. As the fielder ran in hot pursuit, Cummins and Patterson kept running in tandem like madmen… one… two… three…
The scores were tied. Tendulkar had conceded 5 off the first 5 balls. If he could keep Cummins on strike, Shastri might have a go at Patterson at the other end.
Would it be a tie? There had been three ties in ODIs till then — between Australia and West Indies at MCG, England and Australia at Trent Bridge, and Pakistan and West Indies at Lahore. Could this be the fourth?
The field came in. Cummins was ready for the shot. Tendulkar bowled one outside off, and the ball probably hurried a bit more than what Cummins had expected. He still went with the shot, and the white ball dropped short of first slip… if only first slip had been standing a couple of steps ahead… if only More had dived across…
But Azhar had dived, from second slip. It was an outstanding catch even by his lofty standards; he almost managed to defy the laws of physics by dipping faster than the ball, catching it with both hands and coming up in one fluid motion.
It was as perfect a slip catch as they make them. It was the perfect finish to a perfect encounter.
What followed?
– India lost the best-of-three finals 0-2 against Australia, while West Indies did not qualify.
– India have not played West Indies in Australia since the tournament till ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 encounter, once again at WACA.
Brief scores:
India 126 (Ravi Shastri 33, Pravin Amre 20; Curtly Ambrose 2 for 9, Malcolm Marshall 2 for 23, Anderson Cummins 2 for 21) tied with West Indies 126 (Anderson Cummins 24; Kapil Dev 2 for 30, Javagal Srinath 2 for 27, Subroto Banerjee 3 for 30).
Man of the Match: Curtly Ambrose.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
