Ten of the best

Ten of the best

JUNE 25-28, LORD'S, ENGLAND, 1932: India make their Test debut. There was nothing spectacular about their performance, they lost the Test by 158 runs, yet there was nothing to feel embarrassed about. The fearsome pace duo of Mohammed Nissar and Amar Singh made their mark, with Nissar taking five wickets in the first innings to make England struggle for runs in the first innings.

FEBRUARY 6-10, CHEPAUK, MADRAS, 1952: India waited for 20 years before registering their first Test victory, that too over the very people who taught them the game. It was a great mental barrier broken at home and India beat England by an innings and eight runs. Centuries from Pankaj Roy and Polly Umrigar saw India make 457 for eight and the magical fingers of Vinoo Mankad and Ghulam Ahmed spun the Englishmen out, in the first innings for 266 and in the second for 183. Mankad finished with 12 for 132.

MARCH 6-10, QUEEN'S PARK OVAL, PORT-OF-SPAIN, 1971: India beat the famed West Indians in their own den. A newera in cricket's history begins with the emergence of Sunil Gavaskar, who went to score more than 10,000 runs and 34 Test hundreds. In this victory, Gavaskar made 65 and 67 not out on his debut, Dilip Sardesai hit a hundred, Bishen Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna spun a web around the Gary Sobers-led West Indians and Salim Durrani bowled two dream balls to get rid of Sobers and Clive Lloyd and India won by seven wickets.

AUGUST 19-23, THE OVAL, LONDON, 1971: Ajit Wadekar's men, after their triumph in the West Indies, conquer England in England the same year. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar's spell of 6 for 38 off 18.1 overs, Eknath Solkar's lightening reflexes and catching at short-leg are memories etched in every cricket fan's mind.

APRIL 7-12, QUEEN'S PARK OVAL, PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD, 1976: India write a new chapter in world's cricketing history by becoming the only team to chase more than 400 runs for victory successfully. It is a score which no team has ever achieved and a record which shouldbe the most cherished one by the Indians who have the image of being poor chasers, that too away from home. Clive Lloyd declares the West Indian second innings at 271 for 6, leaving India a target of 403 to win. India achieve the impossible. The two outstanding Indian batsmen, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath score hundreds, Mohinder Amarnath 85, and Brijesh Patel an unbeaten 49 as India reach the winning margin for the loss of only four wickets.

FEBRUARY 7-11, MELBOURNE, 1981: A stunning victory over the formidable Australians led by Greg Chappell. After almost near dominance by the Australians in the Test in which they take a 182-run first innings lead Australia are to chase a mere 143 runs for victory. They fail to do so. The searing movement of Kapil Dev (5 for 28), the guiles of Dilip Doshi and the shock-treatment from Karsan Ghavri, who gets rid of Greg Chappell, lead India to their first victory on the Australian soil. The Australians are dismissed for only 83 runs and the victory marginis 59.

JUNE 25, LORD'S, 1983: Kapil's Devils turn the cricketing world upside down. The 40-1 outsiders emerge new champions of one-day cricket, displacing the West Indians from that pedestal. The final of the Prudential World Cup turns out to be, against all odds, a memorable day in India's one-day cricket history. Kris Srikkanth's square drive off Andy Roberts on a bended knee, Gordon Greenidge shouldering arms only to be bowled by Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Kapil's running catch off Viv Richards and Mohinder Amarnath's charge to grab the wicket as a souvenir of that momentous victory are never-to-be-forgotten images.

JUNE 5-10, LORD'S AND JUNE 19-23, HEADINGLEY, LEEDS, 1986: Two Test matches of India's 1986 tour have been clubbed together. Both the matches India won comfortably, the first by five wickets and the second by 279 runs. India won that series convincingly, the best overseas result they have ever achieved. Led by Kapil Dev, the team had players of the calibre of Sunil Gavaskar,Dilip Vengsarkar, Kris Srikkanth, Mohinder Amarnath, Mohammed Azharuddin, Ravi Shastri playing a leading role in shaping that win. Considering India's poor overseas record in the last decade they have won just one Test away from home this team should rank one of the all-time best not only in terms of talent but mental strength and self-belief as well.

MARCH 27, EDEN PARK, AUCKLAND, 1994:

On a windy, cold day in Auckland India's regular opener, Navjot Singh Sidhu, wakes up with a stiff neck. The team's search for a new opener ends when Tendulkar volunteers to do the job. It as a decision which turns out to be an epoch-shaping one in the limited overs game. Tendulkar till that day had not even hit a one-day hundred. He bats with mesmeric zeal and produces strokes of stunning power and control to score 82 runs off mere 49 balls. India win that match easily but more than the result, Tendulkar is re-invented as a one-day player of most destructive qualities and ever since that day in New Zealand thecricketing world has never been the same again.

JUNE 20-24, LORD'S, 1996: This is not a story of a Test win. This is a story of the emergence of two stars on the Indian cricketing horizon Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. India have performed miserably in the first Test of that series at Edgbaston and for the second Test cap Dravid and Ganguly. Ganguly underlines his class by scoring a hundred. Dravid misses by five runs but the two youngster have done enough to take India ahead of England's 344. But the greater significance of the match is the discovery of the duo who, as we step into the new millennium, are the backbones of Indian batting and great hopes for the future.