By Roger Seymour
On Thursday, 27th March, 1997, first day of the Third Test match between India and the West Indies. I arrived at Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados with a group of friends. It was approaching midday, the match was ticking away, and no one else seemed to be bothered except me, the only cricket fan in the group.
Our hosts, Guyanese friends and longtime residents of Barbados, met us and drove us to their home. The weather was absolutely perfect; lots of sunshine, blue skies and light breeze. The traffic was slow moving, it seemed to take forever to get there. Once we settled in, I set off on my own for Kensington, about 12-15 minutes brisk walking, entrance ticket, kindly procured in advance by my host, in hand.
The post-lunch session was in progress when I arrived. India’s Captain Sachin Tendulkar having won the toss invited the hosts to bat first on the heavily grassed wicket which had been prepared in response to the two captains’ call for livelier pitches. The West Indies, 90 for three wickets, were floundering against the seam attack of three Indian six footers: Venkatesh Prasad, Dodda Ganesh and Abey Kuruvilla. Brian Lara, leading the West Indies in a Test match for the first time, as Captain Courtney Walsh was sidelined with a hamstring injury, was just caught by his counterpart, Tendulkar, for 19. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in the middle since Sherwin Campbell’s dismissal eleven minutes into the match, was holding the fort. Shiv had been promoted to the crucial one down position in the batting order during the just concluded 1996 – 97 Tour of Australia where Lara experienced a dry patch. Carl Hooper replaced the interim skipper, and the Guyanese pair duly applied themselves to repairing the damage. In the second hour after lunch disaster struck, as Hooper, (19) edged a catch to wicket-keeper Mongia.
Roland Holder, in his third Test match, first at home, could only muster five runs before succumbing in similar fashion to the other four top-order batsmen, a catch off the outside edge to Prasad or Ganesh, the Indian seamers. Just before tea, the West Indies were in dire straits at 131 for five, as Courtney Browne, the West Indies wicket-keeper, making his first appearance in the series, came to the crease.
The large crowd at the Kensington Oval was quiet, but for the small pockets of Indian supporters feverishly waving the ‘Tricolour.’ The burden of a respectable score rested squarely on the shoulders of this pair, as only the four fast bowlers remained. Shiv and Browne plodded along for an hour and a half, adding 56. Then, Browne, 24, attempting to sweep Anil Kumble, sent a catch into the safe hands of Tendulkar at square-leg. Six runs later, Prasad knocked out Ian Bishop’s off-stump. The scoreboard read 193 for seven wickets, as the 6’ 7” Curtly Ambrose strode out to join the diminutive Shiv. A cloud of disillusionment hovered over the cricket savvy Kensington spectators. Could Ambrose stick around long enough for Shiv, who had 83 runs, to get that elusive century?
As Shiv entered the nervous nineties there was a buzz of anticipation. Due to India’s slow over rate, play had been extended by an hour. With Shiv on 97, Tendulkar took the new ball. The two lefthanders had a mid-pitch conference, the crowd was on its feet, a gentle, slow, hand clap rippled around the Oval. The first ball was pushed to the on-side, no run. The second delivery was driven past the outstretched hand of the diving Ganesh, the ball raced away in the gap. The batsmen sprinted two, then Shiv turned and charged for the third just as a stampede commenced from all points of the ground. It was Shiv’s maiden Test century. The crowd was delirious. It was a tough day for West Indies fans until then. The day’s hero was engulfed by overjoyed fans. A squad of Barbadian police officers extracted Shiv from the mob, forming a protective circle while he savoured the moment. The invaders were ushered off the ground. The din was deafening. Spectators were weeping. Shiv removed his helmet, raised his bat to the crowd, knelt and kissed the pitch. Ambrose embraced him in a massive bear hug. It was a moment to cherish.
It was a testimony to Shiv’s fighting spirit that whilst the innings was crumbling around him, he dug in deeper. It had been a long time coming. It took 30 innings to get there. In 18 Test matches Shiv had managed 13 scores over 50, including seven above 70. As the light began to fade, time was called with 4.2 overs remaining. At the close, the West Indies were 240 for 7, with Shiv on 102 and Ambrose, who had proven to be no rabbit on 28.
Friday, 28th March was Good Friday and in a most unusual occurrence, the Rest Day, normally taken after three days’ play, was observed after only one.
Second day
On Saturday, 29th March, as the designated driver for the group’s rental car, I had to fulfil the task of finding various destinations on Barbados’ spider-web network of narrow roads, as I followed the game’s progress via radio commentary. Shiv and Ambrose had picked up from where they stopped on Thursday, but the partnership was finally broken when Ambrose attempted a massive heave off Kuruvilla, and only succeeded in edging a catch to Tendulkar. Ambrose’s contribution to the invaluable eighth wicket partnership of 65 was 37, inclusive of six boundaries.
Franklin Rose, the new batsman, maintained the tempo. He and Shiv added another crucial 32 runs in 29 minutes, before a breakdown in communication found both batsmen at the striker’s end. Shiv darting between the wickets, turned for a second run which Rose, facing the fielder, thought was not on. Rose, unselfishly, surrendered his wicket.
The last man, Mervyn Dillion, survived for a quarter of an hour before becoming Prasad’s fifth scalp, trapped LBW. Shiv, after batting for just shy of seven and a half hours, was undefeated on 137. His chanceless innings, the backbone of the West Indian effort, included a dozen fours off 284 deliveries. His mastery of the Indian bowling and the conditions over the lengthy innings was the sole reason the West Indies accumulated a respectable score of 298.
All the while, I had been listening, I had doubts about getting to the ground; too many stops on the itinerary.
The West Indies made a promising start, dismissing the opening pair before they took substantial root. Ambrose, switching his influence now to the ball, bowled VVS Laxman, while Rose teased an edge from the experienced Navjot Sidhu to Browne, with his first ball of the match. India were 42 for two just after lunch, but they soon recovered. I kept switching the radio off and on with the hope that a wicket would fall, to no avail. Rahul Dravid, still basking in the glow of his initial Test series against England last summer, and Tendulkar, made hay with the wayward bowling.
It became obvious that I was not getting to Kensington and I thought of Paul Keens-Douglas’s trip to Queens Park Oval with Tanti Merle for the last day of the 1975 Leeward Islands / Trinidad and Tobago Shell Shield encounter, and his definitive vow, “Never, never, never, never me again,
To take no relative with me to de Oval…”
As the classical Dravid held firm, Tendulkar, in his 51st Test match, put on a spectacular display for the appreciative crowd. Drawing on his full arsenal of shots; front foot drives, cuts, pulls and back foot straight drives, he consistently pierced Lara’s attacking field placing. The radio commentators’ descriptions painted the perfect picture: “No doubt about that one,” “Four more!!!”, “Perfectly executed”, “Too short again and Tendulkar dispatches it,” “Great stroke from Tendulkar, just a little twist of the wrists.” It was compelling. It was good cricket. I had to listen despite the plundering.
Once again play was extended an hour because of the slow West Indies’ rate of 12.2 overs per hour. As the shadows lengthened, Tendulkar’s score entered the 90s. His twelfth century in Tests beckoned. As happens so often with commanding performances, his culminated with the slightest of mistakes. After playing and missing a very good delivery from Bishop, Tendulkar playing away from his body, pushed the next one upward to deep gully, where Campbell, plunging to his left, plucked the catch with both hands. Television replays showed that Bishop had clearly overstepped the mark. The West Indies got lucky.
A disappointed Tendulkar departed to a standing ovation after royally spanking the famed West Indies pace attack. His brilliant innings of 92, in 222 minutes off 147 balls, included 14 fours, and two sixes, one of which was a spectacular hook off Rose. The partnership with Dravid set a new third wicket record of 170 for India in the West Indies.
Sourav Ganguly, the left-handed half of the previous summer’s outstanding middle-order Test debutant duo joined Dravid with India comfortably perched at 212 for three. Nine months before at Lord’s, they announced themselves to the cricketing world with innings lasting longer than six hours each. Ganguly gained membership to the exclusive club of Test debutant century makers, as Dravid faltered just five runs short. When the fast fading light ended play, India were 249 for three, with Dravid on 71, and Ganguly on 21.
Day three
Saturday night lasted a little longer than scheduled and I surfaced late, missing the first hour of play on Easter Sunday, 30th March. As I struggled to find out the first session’s progress, I was bombarded with pleas to take the group to Accra Beach. As I acquiesced – to loud cheering – a commentator announced that Dravid had played on to Bishop for 78. India were 273 for five. I could hear the crowd’s elation. The commentators were raving over the West Indies’ tactical approach. The bowlers were concentrating on a fuller line and Lara opted for a run-saving field. Ganguly fell to the temptation of a lifting ball in the day’s third over and touched a catch to Browne off Dillion, while Dravid had spent 70 minutes labouring over an additional seven runs. Mongia returned to the pavilion just before lunch, courtesy of a difficult catch at extra-cover by Williams. India were 275 for six, still trailing by 23 runs.
At Accra Beach, on the South Coast, I sat in the car, listening as Rose mopped up the tail, grabbing three of the four wickets, two courtesy of wicket-keeper Browne, including the prized wicket of Azharuddin. India having collapsed to 319 all out, had lost their last seven wickets for 70 runs. The lead was a paltry 21 runs, compliments of the West Indians pacers’ generosity of 30 no balls, in an extras total of 46, the third highest contributor to the score. Ambrose was the main donor with 15. Rose and Bishop, with four and three wickets, respectively, were the leading bowlers.
The match was evenly poised. Two and a half days remained, with no side holding any particular advantage. There was one element to think about though; the pitch. There was still a lot of bounce in the pitch and India was batting last. It was still a battle.
By close of play, I was no longer good company. I was brooding silently. Perhaps borderline seething might be more appropriate. I was convinced that I had jinxed the team again. The first time I attended a Test at Kensington was in 1995, when the match was unceremoniously surrendered by ten wickets, in three days to Australia. Two years later, in less than two days, West Indies were on the verge of another magnanimous defeat.
Extended play ended with India on two without loss, having been set a target of 120 runs, with two days to play. The West Indies had capitulated for 140 in their second innings which lasted all of 45 overs. It was their lowest total against India in the Caribbean, and their second lowest overall. Two wickets were lost before the deficit was erased, including that of first innings centurion, Shiv. Lara’s bold counterattacking innings of 45 off 67 deliveries lasted for an hour and three-quarters, and when he was fifth out, the West Indies total was 86. At that point in time, I had abandoned the comfort of the car (and the radio commentary), and sought solace in a sea-bath and a cold Banks beer from the Barbados brewery. Thus, I missed the swashbuckling defiance by the last pair, Ambrose and Dillion, who took the score from 107 to its final resting place of 140. Apparently, Dillion, who hadn’t bothered the scorers in the first innings, stole the show, walloping Kuruvilla for three fours and a massive hooked six, before he was clean bowled for 21. As in the first innings, Ambrose, ‘the gentle giant’, refused to surrender meekly, batting for an hour and being third joint top scorer with 18. The last wicket stand of 33 set a new Kensington record. India only needed the three seam bowlers, with Kuruvilla, five, Prasad, three, and Ganesh, two, splitting the spoils.
The final day
On Easter Monday, 31st March, the group attempted to placate my depression by encouraging me to go to Kensington. It would be like attending a funeral, I replied, declining. I suggested watching the kite flying on the Historic Garrison Savannah, just outside of Bridgetown, which has been the home of horse racing in Barbados since 1845. It was also the location of a return match between Codrington College and the Gallant 49th in late 1857, one of the earliest recorded instances of the game on the island, according to Bruce Hamilton’s Cricket in Barbados (1947).
In between watching a group of men attempting to fly an enormous kite – some eight to ten feet tall — with a written message, a protest against abortion, I periodically checked the score on the radio. The kite flew, but every time it went down, wickets fell. By lunch, India were in dire straits; 57 for seven.
The West Indies, like India, utilised only three bowlers in the second innings. The visitors succumbed for 81, their lowest score in a Test the Caribbean. Ambrose, Bishop and Rose shared the wickets, as the West Indies won by 38 runs in the most unpredictable of circumstances. Lara became the sixth West Indian captain to win his debut match. I had missed witnessing some spectacular cricket.
The West Indies went on to win the five-match series 1 – 0.
Note the following numbers: Azharuddin – 99 Tests, 6215 runs, 22 centuries; Tendulkar – 200, 15,921, 51; Dravid – 164, 13,288, 36; Ganguly – 113, 7212, 16; Laxman – 134, 8781, 17. Total Test runs: 51,417 Total centuries: 142. Their respective scores on that Easter Monday: 9, 4, 2, 8, 19.
