We left Indian Test cricket in 1946 in the aftermath of its tour to England under the captaincy of the Nawab of Pataudi, a tour on which India tried hard but ultimately fell way short of the standard required to beat England in their own backyard.
In the quarter of a century since India had failed to win a Test match in England. Pakistan had, the West Indies had, but not India, who seemed unable to best their old colonial masters, losing fifteen and drawing four of their nineteen matches.
But India arrived in 1971 more confident than ever before. An unprecedented series victory in the West Indies had given them hope, and they believed that even the English in English conditions would struggle against their spin quartet of Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Bishan Bedi, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna.
The first Test was drawn thanks to bad weather, the Indians looking on aghast from their dressing room as a snowstorm descended on Lord’s, and the second match at Old Trafford also failed to produce a winner. So the rubber came down to the last of the three Test matches at the Oval, and it hadn’t escaped the Indian players or their fans that the match coincided with Ganesh Chaturthi, a Hindu festival to honour the elephant-headed god of good fortune and destroyer of obstacles.
England batted first and made 355, and when India were dismissed for 284 in reply, a draw or a defeat for the visitors appeared the most likely outcome. But on the fourth day of play, Monday 23 August, Indian supporters arrived at the Oval with an elephant in tow to honour Ganesh Chaturthi. As the Sunday Times explained: ‘Bella, a three-year-old Asian elephant from Chessington Zoo in Surrey, took to the field wearing a white cap with the words “Chessington Zoo XI”. It proved a good omen.’
England collapsed from 23 without loss to 101 all out as Chandrasekhar took a leaf out of Ganesh’s books and destroyed all obstacles in his path, finishing with figures of six wickets for 38 runs in eighteen overs. ‘I have never been a bowler who planned things,’ he told the Sunday Times later. ‘Most of the time I bowled whatever I felt like, without giving much importance to the conditions or who I was bowling to. I always believed that if I bowled well, I could trouble most batsmen. That afternoon everything fell into place.’
Chandrasekhar took Ganesh’s lead and destroyed all Obstacles in his path
But India still needed 173 for victory, on a pitch taking spin and with England able to call on their own ‘deadly’ spinner in Derek Underwood. At the close of play on the fourth day India had chipped away 76 runs from their target for the loss of just two wickets.
The fifth day was unbearably tense, not just for the small number of Indian fans in the ground but for the millions listening on radios back home. Progress was painstakingly slow as they eked out run after run, but wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer saw them home, scoring 28 of their last 40 runs. ‘Those 28 I scored were like 128,’ recalled Engineer.
The news of the victory, relayed to India on Test Match Special, blew the lid off Bombay, the spiritual home of Indian cricket. Wisden reported that ‘unprecedented scenes were witnessed on the night of August 24… there was dancing in the streets. Revellers stopped and boarded buses to convey the news to commuters. In the homes, children garlanded wireless sets over which the cheery voice of Brian Johnston had proclaimed the glad tidings of India’s first Test victory in England, a victory which also gave them the rubber.’
India returned home in triumph, the unofficial world champions having won a series in the Caribbean and now in England. But it was the latter triumph that stirred India’s soul and inspired a new generation of fans. ‘India was a colony of England, and to beat your masters at their own game was a bit of a feather in the cap,’ reflected Engineer. ‘Any victory in a Test series was joyous, but to beat England in England was a phenomenal feat at the time for us Indians.’