When Jasubhai made the Aussies dance to his tune

In the second test of the 1959-60 test series against Australia, off-spinner led the way for one of the most monumental bowling performances of all time, recording bowling figures of 9-69 in the first innings.

India off-break bowler Jasubhai Patel. Image credits: The Cricket Lounge

The series opener was a disappointing outing for the hosts, as Australia thumped towards victory by the margin of an innings and 127 runs. Lala Amarnath, who was Independent India’s first Test captain and worked as the chairman of selectors at the time, made some calls for the second game that seemed outlandish at first. Tamhane was brought in to keep the wickets, Ramakant Desai was benched to bring in right-hand batter Ramnath Kenny in the XI, and most notably, off-spinner Jasubhai Patel was given another crack at Test Cricket.

Lala believed that Patel’s skittish and flat off-breakers would be difficult to read on the sandy new turf at Kanpur.

India’s start was, unsurprisingly, poor. With no significant contributions from any batter, they were all out for 152; Bapu Nadkarni top scored with 25. Davidson and Benaud picked 9 wickets between them as India were set for another disappointing loss.

To add insult to injury, the Australians got off to a commanding start. The first wicket fell for 71 which was followed by fifties for opener McDonald and Aussie number 3 Neil Harvey. As folklore tells us, Lala noticed that Patel was bowling from the wrong end and wanted him to switch bowling ends. Doing so would allow him to pitch the ball on the footmarks that Davidson and Meckiff had left. What followed next was nothing short of a miracle.

When the game went to lunch, the scoreboard stood at 128-1. Lala articulated his thoughts to captain Raichand and he was quick to implement the change. The move paid off almost instantly as Patel removed McDonald for 53. Wickets then came in a flurry as Australia lost their last 9 wickets for 91 runs. Resistance from Alan Davidson had helped Australia push the score to 219, still 67 runs ahead. Jasubhai’s figures of 35.5-16-69-9 went on to be the best bowling figures in international cricket for a long, long time.

Despite the collapse that Patel had induced, Australia were still favorites to win the game. First thing to do was for them to end the day’s play without losing a wicket, and they’d successfully managed to do that. Shortly after play began on the third day, Roy lost his wicket to Davidson and Contractor was then joined by Umrigar. They managed to clear the arrears successfully by Umrigar lost his wicket at 72 with India just 5 runs ahead of Australia.

A valiant 74 by Contractor and 36 by Baig helped India anchor to the score of 149-4. Captain Raichand failed to leave a mark again as he fell for 5 runs, leaving India at 153-5. It was then time for Lala’s second move to shine. When Ramnath Kenny joined Borde to bat at the loss of 5 wickets, they went hard at the Aussie bowlers. Not losing a wicket till just before the end of play, they had managed to take the score to 226-6 (Borde 44 and Kenny 51).

What got lost in Patel’s monumental, record-breaking performance was the magic that Davidson had splattered all over in that game. He was considered to be one of the most effective all-rounders of the sport and in the second innings raked the figures of 57.3-23-93-7. For context, Davidson ended his test career with 186 wickets in 44 games.

The target for the Australians was 225. Nothing too extraordinary but not a cakewalk either. The Indian’s took two wickets in the day’s play with them as the visitors needed 169 on the final day with 8 wickets in hand. The match hung in the balance perfectly and the world was set for a thrilling final day encounter.

Some early wickets had dampened the hopes of Australian fans as soon enough, they were 61-4. After two early wickets in the previous day, Patel was brought back into the attack and swept the Australian batting order clean. All but 3 batters scored single digits as they got bowled out for just 105, meaning India had won the game by an astounding 119 runs.

Looking back at this game, Borde said:

‘The Australians were staying with industrial magnate Singhania in his mansion. It had a swimming pool. Many Australian players were relaxing in the swimming pool on the final morning when they got the message that wickets were falling. They literally rushed to the ground in their towels.’

Patel’s international career was modest but memorable. Before this game, he had played only 4 tests and was picked for only two more after this one. But out of the 29 wickets he’d taken in his 7-game long career, 14 came in this one. A true bowling icon.