India vs England: When India spinner B. S. Chandrasekhar gift India their first Test win over England in England. Remembering B. S. Chandrasekhar's 6-38 vs England in 1971.
The third Test between England and India at the Kennington Oval in the summer of 1971 will be forever etched in the annals of Indian cricket. It was on August 24, 1971, when India won their first-ever Test match on English soil and subsequently clinched the series 1-0. This victory proved to be a significant one in shaping India’s cricketing journey over the decades to come.
Coming to the series, it was evenly poised as the first two games at Lord’s & Manchester ended in draws. The third one at the Kennington Oval was a series decider, and both teams had plenty to play for.
England, opting to bat, posted a good total of 355 on the back of fifties from John Jameson (82), Richard Hutton (81), and Alan Knott (90). The spin trio of Bishan Singh Bedi, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar picked two wickets apiece for India, while Eknath Solkar walked away with three scalps.
The visiting teams’ batters had a decent show but still folded for 284 runs, adrift in the game by 71 runs. Only Dilip Sardesai and Farokh Engineer managed to go over the 50-run mark, and India’s victory hopes hinged on how well their spin-dominated bowling attack would fare in the third innings. They needed to restrict England to a manageable total for them to preserve hopes for a historic victory.
Bhagwath Chandrasekhar: India’s matchwinner
As expected, in search of breakthroughs, India’s skipper Ajit Wadekar introduced spin early into the attack, with a hope of finding purchase from the Oval pitch. After all, it is among England’s grounds that assists spin as the surface wears down.
This move proved to be vital as India spinners, particularly Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, spun a web around England's batters on the fourth day of the Test match. Coming into the attack relatively early, Chandrasekar was in action within no time.
First, he was involved in the runout of John Jameson at the bowlers’ end before castling John Edrich with his deceptively quick top spinner. Chandrasekhar then accounted for Keith Fletcher, caught at forward short leg. With his spin twin, Venkataraghavan, sending back Basil D’Oliveira and Knott from the other end, Chandra made further inroads in the England batting line-up.
The wily spinner dismissed the hosts’ skipper Ray Illingworth soon before removing their only remaining batting hope, Brian Luckhurst, for 33. With the wicket of John Snow, Chandra claimed his third five-wicket haul in Tests, and John Price was his sixth scalp of the innings.
This spell helped India restrict England’s second innings down to a mere 101 runs, and India had to chase 173 to attain a historic series win. The visitors eventually chased down the target by four wickets and won their first-ever series in England.
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The Legacy of ‘Oval 1971’
Chandra’s 6/38 remains the best by an India spinner in England and the fourth-best in a SENA country. It is one of the greatest bowling performances by an India bowler away from home and arguably the greatest by a spinner.
Notably, this win was their first of just three triumphs in a Test series in England. The next one came in the 1986 tour, where they won 2-0 and had to wait 21 years for the third (1-0 in 2007). While India mustered draws twice (1-1 in 2002 and 2-2 in 2021-22), they endured defeats in the rest of their 14 Test trips to England.
India’s track record when it comes to Tests in England is so mediocre that they won only nine out of 67 completed Tests, suffering 36 defeats in the process.
Nevertheless, Oval 1971 was a big event in Indian cricket history, and it made them believe they could compete in overseas conditions, especially in SENA countries. In the following decades, India started doing progressively better overseas in any given format and remained almost unbeatable at home.
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