44 years later still Indian cricket's proudest statistical achievement
The world record was notched up 44 years today
Partab Ramchand
07-Jan-2000
The world record was notched up 44 years today. And it remains Indian
cricket's proudest statistical achievement. Yes, Sunil Gavaskar's 34
Test centuries is still a world record and so is Kapil Dev's Test
tally of 434 wickets. And both are no mean feats. But on sheer
longevity - over 1000 Test matches have been played since then - as
also the fact that it has been beyond the reach of the some of the
most famous opening partners in the game's history - the 413-run first
wicket stand between Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy, put together at the
Corporation (Nehru stadium) in Madras against New Zealand on January 6
and 7, 1956 still remains the record to beat.
It was the final Test of the five match series and India had already a
1-0 lead by their innings victory in the second Test at Bombay. A
notable feature of the four matches had been the mastery of the Indian
batting over the New Zealand bowling. Scores of 498 for 4 declared,
421 for 8 declared, 531 for 7 declared and 438 for 7 declared clearly
showed that the visitors' bowling held no terrors for the Indian
batsmen. Polly Umrigar and Vinoo Mankad had scored double hundreds
while Vijay Manjrekar (118 and 177 not out), AG Kripal Singh (100 not
out on debut), GS Ramchand (106 not out) and Pankaj Roy (100) all
crossed the three digit mark. So when Polly Umrigar won the toss on a
featherbed of a wicket (it was the first Test to be played at the
Nehru stadium) it was taken for granted that India would run up
another big total and there would possibly be a couple of hundreds
more.
None however could have bargained for what actually happened. For a
start, Mankad and Roy batted throughout the opening day, becoming the
first Indian pair - and only the third in 420 matches since 1877 - to
bat throughout a day's play in a Test. It was a tremendous feat given
the fact that while being established players, the two were not
exactly the regular Indian opening pair. Roy and Mankad had first
opened for India against England at Calcutta in 1951-52 and were an
instant success with partnerships of 72 and 103*. In the next Test at
Kanpur they shared partnerships of 39 and 7. They next opened in
England in 1952 and had wretched luck. They started with an opening
stand of 106 at Lord's, but in the remaining Tests their association
was limited to 7, 4, 7 and 0. Back home they opened in the first Test
against Pakistan at New Delhi and had a partnership of 19. Then with
the selectors trying out new opening batsmen in Madhav Apte, DK
Gaekwad and PH Punjabi, Mankad and Roy never got another chance at
opening the innings till the first Test of the series against New
Zealand. The partnership was restricted to one run and further new
opening batsmen were tried in Vijay Mehra and Nari Contractor. For the
final Test, Contractor was dropped down the order and the Mankad-Roy
pairing was back. But as can be seen, their association so far had
neither been a failure nor a success.
Given this background, coming through unbeaten through a day's play
was a commendable feat, even after accounting for the amiable nature
of the bowling and the benign wicket. By close, India were 234 without
loss, with Roy on 114 and Mankad on 109. Roy was the first to get to
his 100 in 262 minutes with six fours. Shortly before close, Mankad
got to his century in 287 minutes with nine fours. They had already
surpassed the famous 203-run opening stand set up by Vijay Merchant
and Mushtaq Ali against England at Manchester in 1936.
On the next day, the two batsmen continued in much the same vein
making runs comfortably against the six man attack of Hayes,
MacGibbon, Cave, Reid, Moir and Poore. Soon the runs were being ticked
off with almost monotonous regularity. And one by one the landmarks
were passed. First, Mankad's 150, then the 300 of the partnership,
then Roy's 150 until finally shortly after lunch, the `big one' was
passed - 359 by Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook for England against
South Africa at Johannesburg in 1948-49, the highest first wicket
partnership in Test cricket.
Now it was only a question of how long the run feast would
continue. Mankad crossed his 200 for the second time in the series,
joining the ranks of Don Bradman and Wally Hammond as the others who
had scored two double hundreds in the same series. Midway through the
afternoon, the 400 came up. By now the runs were being scored with
greater urgency and one sensed that Umrigar wanted an early
declaration. At 413, Roy, while trying to boost the scoring rate, was
bowled by Poore for 173 and it seemed like something contrary to
nature had happened. Indeed, there seemed no reason to believe that
the two could not carry on batting throughout a second successive
day. The partnership lasted 472 minutes and remained the highest first
wicket partnership in Indian first class cricket till 1977-78 when
Roger Binny and Sanjay Desai put on 451 runs in the South Zone Ranji
Trophy match against Kerala at Chikmagalur.
Mankad went on to get 231, the highest score by an Indian in Tests, a
record that stayed till Sunil Gavaskar made 236 not out against West
Indies in 1983-84, also at Madras but at Chepauk. The Indians finished
with 537 for three, their highest ever total in Test cricket and went
on to win the match by an innings and 109 runs. But everything was
overshadowed by the marathon opening partnership. The stand's
greatness is best exemplified by the fact that though two opening
pairs in 1965 and 1972 have threatened to surpass it, it has stood the
test of time. In the first instance, Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry put
on 382 runs for Australia against West Indies at Bridgetown and seven
years later, Glenn Turner and Terry Jarvis were associated in a stand
of 387 for New Zealand against West Indies at Georgetown. But the
record still stands in the name of Mankad, who passed away in 1978 and
Roy, now 71. As the survivor, the former Indian captain will no doubt
remember this day in his Calcutta home with pride and a glint in his
eye.