OTD: India's first ever Test win in England at The Oval
August 24, 1971—a historic day for Indian cricket. It was the first time Team India won a match in England. By winning the Test match at The Oval, Ajit Wadekar and his boys concluded England's long-standing undefeated streak.
August 24, 1971—a historic day for Indian cricket. It was the first time Team India won a match in England. By winning the Test match at The Oval, Ajit Wadekar and his boys concluded England's long-standing undefeated streak.
The home team under Ray Illingworth's captaincy tried hard to defend the target of 173 runs. Until the last moment of the game, the captain himself bowled tightly and maintained challenging field sets on a slow, turning track. To chase down the target, India had a day and a half in their hand. Despite losing multiple top-order batters early in the second innings, they were able to write history in England.
Before the second innings, England was the frontrunner to win the competition, as they registered 355 runs on the scoreboard batting first. Alan Knott scored 90, and eighty-plus scores from John Jameson and Richard Hutton worked as the primary catalyst for the England cricket team. India, in their first innings, scored only 284 and allowed the host to maintain a lead. Farokh Engineer and Dilip Sardesai bagged half-centuries during this phase of the match.
England fought bravely till the end
The bowling department of India shifted the momentum of the match in the second innings when England bowled out for only 101 runs. Bhagwath Chandrasekhar emerged as the wrecker-in-chief by taking 6 wickets in the second innings to go with the first innings' 2 wickets. During the decisive essay of the game, England quickly got the wickets of Sunil Gavaskar and Ashok Mankad. Their economical bowling made India's task harder to get the target total.
Ajit Wadekar (45) and Dilip Sardesai (40) remained firm on the tricky surface and helped India to overcome the early setbacks. Gundappa Viswanath and Farokh Engineer did the rest of the job to confirm India's first win on English soil.
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