Published: Jul 17, 2016, 05:29 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 17, 2016, 05:29 PM (IST)
It was the first Test of the series between England and India at the iconic Lord’s in the year 1990. The game, which is mostly remembered for Graham Gooch‘s assault on Indian bowlers, started with India inviting England to field first.
Kapil Dev took the first wicket of Mike Atherton and from there on it was all Gooch. Once the English opener began his assault on Indian bowlers, he became unstoppable and ended up scoring a magnificent triple century (333). Before his wicket, Allan Lamb and Robin Smith also scored their centuries and England ended up posting a huge total of 653 on the board. Also Read: Graham Gooch’s magnum opus innings of 333
In return, Indian batsmen started pretty decently with opener Ravi Shastri being the centurion along with captain Mohammad Azharuddin, while Dilip Vengsarkar contributed with his half-century. Later, Kapil Dev was the only recognised batsman left at the crease and then came the moment of the match. India needed exactly 24 runs to save the follow on with one wicket left and Kapil was at the crease in front of spinner Eddie Hemmings.
Kapil knew that India’s last man Narendra Hirwani was a bunny with the bat and there were only four balls left in the over of Hemmings. He decided to go after each ball and gave a proud moment for all the Indians by hitting him for four back-to-back sixes in order to avoid the follow on.
All the four sixes were hit in the same direction and that is at long on. The first two were hit when Kapil walked down the pitch a bit and the rest were just ‘stand and deliver’.
Watch all those four sixes by Kapil here:
After hitting the fourth six on the final ball of the over, Kapil was pumped-up as he raised his hand and in the next over, Hirwani got out to Angus Fraser, which was expected. Later, England came to bat in the second innings and scored 272 with Gooch scoring a century and setting India a target of 472 runs. Indian batsmen failed and they were all out for 224. England won the match by 247 runs but Kapil hitting four sixes was truly a moment for all the Indians to cherish.
