April is an auspicious month for Indian cricket. Forty years before the 02-04-2011 World Cup triumph, Ajit Wadekar's men achieved their first series win in the West Indies on 19-04-1971

India's 2011 World Cup triumph cannot claim to be the only major cricketing achievement in the month of April.
Forty years ago to the day, Ajit Wadekar's men conquered the West Indies in a series for the first time in the fifth and final Test at Port of Spain, Trinidad .


Class of 1971: Sitting from left: Salim Durrani (partly hidden),
EAS Prasanna, ML Jaisimha, Ajit Wadekar, S Venkataraghavan,
Dilip Sardesai, BS Bedi. Standing from left: K Jayantilal, Abid Ali,
Ashok Mankad, D Govindraj, R Jeejeebhoy, P Krishnamurthy,
Eknath Solkar, Sunil Gavaskar, G Vishwanath (hidden)

After an impressive showing in the first Test at Jamaica which was drawn, India won the second Test at Trinidad. The third Test in Guyana was a drawn affair and so was the fourth in Barbados.

Six-day affair
According to Wadekar, the West Indies board announced that the final Test would be a six-day affair in a quest to ensure a result, but it ended in a draw. "We wrote to the BCCI about the extra day, but they kept quiet. We played under protest," Wadekar told MiD DAY yesterday.

Sunil Gavaskar scored a record 774 runs in his debut Test series, 344 of them came in the fifth Test with efforts of 124 and 220. "West Indies captain Garry Sobers came into our dressing room one evening, wanting to touch Sunil because he wanted to get some of his luck. He couldn't because Sunil had asked me to lock him up in the bathroom," said Wadekar.

Sunny in pain
It was a painful time for Gavaskar. He spent a sleepless night before the Test due to a toothache. Team manager Keki Tarapore refused to let him have the tooth extracted in the fear of that making his young batting star drowsy. When MiD DAY spoke to Gavaskar's Mumbai-based dentist Dr Pratap Raut yesterday, he said that the manager was right in a way because there may have been post extraction complications like bleeding.

Gavaskar's two hundreds in the Test must rank as one of the most commendable efforts in pain and discomfort. "I was feeling pretty weak because I had not eaten well for several days and had spent many sleepless nights," he wrote in his autobiography, Sunny Days.

As West Indies went about responding to India's 360 in fine fashion, Maurice Foster looked set for a century. When he was on 99, a fan told Gavaskar on the boundary that he would give him $100 if Foster got his century. If not, Gavaskar would have to part with one dollar. A few balls later, Abid Ali had Foster clean bowled for 99.

Final day
West Indies scored 526 which got them a 166-run lead. Gavaskar scored 220 out of India's second innings score of 427 and the West Indies were set a target of 262 in 95 minutes and 20 overs. Over to journalist Dicky Rutnagur's report in Playfair Cricket Monthly, June 1971: "When West Indies chased the veritably impossible task of 262 in 95 minutes and 20 overs, the wicket was in pretty bad shape. Its prime victim was Sobers, who was bowled first ball by a rank shooter. Lloyd, who had a disastrous series, found his form just in time to give his side a chance, but against some pretty tight bowling. The others were overwhelmed by the risks they had to take to keep West Indies in the hunt."

Beyond belief
Wadekar admitted that a series win was beyond his expectations: "To be honest, I didn't imagine a series win. I was a bit cautious. Dilip Sardesai (642 runs) and Gavaskar were our batting heroes. We were rated as the weakest Indian team to visit WI but we were a great bunch. We had grit and a sense of humour too. Our strategy for the series was simple ufffd don't allow them to score big and ensure we hold on to all our catches. I don't think we dropped a catch in the series."