Continuing in our India-Australia flashback series, here is a brief summary of the 1947-48 series
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Going Down Under...not quite
India's first tour of Australia in 1947-48 saw a new emerging nation taking on the might of the phenomenon called Don Bradman. There was hardly any need to predict the outcome of the series against the strongest Test team in the world, but skipper Lala Amarnath did make a great impression, as did players like Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad and Dattu Phadkar, who came back as all-rounders to reckon with.
Brisbane Test - Australia won by an innings and 226 runs
Sydney Test - Match drawn
Melbourne Test - Australia won by 233 runs
Adelaide Oval Test - Australia won by an innings and 16 runs
Melbourne Test - Australia won by an innings and 177 runs
The Don had great praise for Lala, who almost pulled one back in the second Test at Sydney, having dismissed Australia for 107, after scoring 188. India caught on a "sticky-dog" (the Aussie description of a glue-pot of a wicket) managed to reach 61 for 7, when play was called off in the match, which had seen only three days' play. Experts believed that India, who at that stage already had a lead of 142, with three wickets in hand, would have earned victory on a rain-effected wicket.
For the first time in his illustrious career, the highly-revered Don Bradman broke protocol and entered the Indian dressing room to personally congratulate Vijay Hazare who had scored a century in each innings of the fourth Test at Adelaide. Hazare scored 116 in the first innings and followed it up with 145. This unique feat of scoring two centuries in a Test match was emulated by Sunil Gavaskar and then Rahul Dravid in later years.
India's next trip to Australia came twenty years later in 1967-68. In many ways, it was a disastrous tour. Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi, who had earlier lost vision in his left-eye in a car accident in England, suffered a hamstring injury early on tour.
Chandu Borde captained India in the first Test in Pataudi's absence. Tiger came back in the second to play two of the most tenacious knocks of his career - 75 and 78 - at Melbourne. The Australian media heralded these two innings as "a most courageous effort of a man hopping on one leg, with diminished vision in one eye''.
The series ended in the only clean-sweep by Australia over India in the history of Test matches, Australia's return trip to India followed next year. A lot happened then.
