A Tale of Two Scorecards- Wish Rajan Bala were here

V V S Laxman's masterly 96 reminded me of another match winning knock for India- January 14 1975 - by G R Viswanath, against mighty West Indies that had among others Andy Roberts, on a lively Chennai wicket and batsmen then didn't wear gladiatorial uniforms.

I of course heard this ball-by-ball on our PYE valve radio. (One of the commentators probably was Suresh Saraiya.)

The best Indian writer, for me, on Cricket, Rajan Bala has talked about Vishy's innings in his book "All the Beautiful Boys" 1990:

"...It was the only time I have seen a fast bowler in a Test match resort to bowling to widish bouncers in order to prevent a batsman getting a single. The West Indians wanted to deprive Vishy of his second century in two Tests and get at Chandrasekhar, the last man. They succeeded. That was Andy's (Roberts) ultimate tribute to Vishy..."

See the complete score-card, which will never record the romance above, here.


And then of course we just had this:


See the complete scorecard of that match here.

(scorecard images courtesy ESPNCrickinfo)