New Zealand returned to India nine years after their first series. They played four Test matches this time. After draws in Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay, India won the final Test, in Delhi, and with that, the series.
After an even battle in Madras, the teams came to Calcutta. There were two heroic performances from New Zealand here. Forty-one-year-old Bert Sutcliffe, returning to the side after six years, scored 151 not out, while debutant Bruce Taylor got 105. New Zealand declared on 462/9.
Then Taylor took 5-86 to help New Zealand take an 82-run lead. In the process, he became the first – and till date, only – cricketer to both score a hundred and take a five-wicket haul on Test debut. The match ended in a draw after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi got a brisk hundred. India vs New Zealand Part 1, 1955/56: World Record That Lasted Half a Century.
Bombay produced substantial drama. Inspired by Taylor (5-26), New Zealand bowled out India for 88 and made them follow on. Dilip Sardesai then batted for over nine hours for his 200 not out to turn the match on its head. Pataudi eventually set New Zealand 255 in two and a half hours. A bolder declaration might have won the Test match, for New Zealand finished on 80/8.
The architect of India’s win was S Venkataraghavan, who took 8-72 and 4-80 at Delhi. Not only that, he became only the second bowler (after Jim Laker) to dismiss all eleven opposition batters in a Test match. With Sardesai and Pataudi scoring hundreds, India won the Test match by seven wickets.
(The above story first appeared on Today News 24 on Jun 16, 2021 10:28 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website todaynews24.top).
