At a time when India lost an embarrassing match against England in Chennai, it is important to note that India won their first ever match against England and also in Chennai (erstwhile Madras). 10 February 1952 was a memorable day in Indian cricket. India had won their first ever Test match by defeating England by an innings and 8 runs. Having made its Test debut in 1932, India had to wait for 20 tiring years before making its mark on the big stage. India also won their first Test series that year in 1952 against Pakistan. India was being led by the great Mumbai batsman, Vijay Hazare. This Indian team included some greats like Mushtaq Ali, Vinoo Mankad, Lala Amarnath, Polly Umrigar and others.
England won the toss and came in to bat first on a dry Madras wicket, perhaps just as dry as today’s Chidambaram wicket. England scored a respectable score of 266. They had started well but couldn’t stand the brilliance of Mankad who took eight wickets in the first innings.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a >#OnThisDay</a> in 1️⃣9️⃣5️⃣2️⃣, India notched up their first ever Test win, by an innings and 8️⃣ runs against England. <a >#PlayBold</a> <a >#TeamIndia</a> <a >pic.twitter.com/C3bpGoerlV</a></p>— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) <a >February 10, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
India came on to bat and scored a mammoth total of 457 runs, courtesy the centuries of Polly Umrigar and Pankaj Roy. Now India had a lead of 191 runs going in to the second innings. But the English batsmen couldn’t survive the spin bowling duo of Mankad and Ghulam Ahmed on a dry pitch that was cracking up as the Days were passing by.
Nonetheless, England’s second innings was wrapped up even before their score reaching the 191 mark. England was all-out for 183 runs. India celebrated as their wait of 20 long years was over. India had won their first ever Test match! Nothing would have satisfied more than a win against their ex-oppressors. Cricket then became a medium of assertion of pride and later in India, it became equivalent to a religion.
The current Indian team might want to take some inspiration from Hazare’s team that won this match in Madras.