Quote:
Originally Posted by SJS
Thats right.
I
By the way, its interesting to note that in 1967 India won the series and the bowlers who did the job for them were
Code:
Player W 5w Best Avg S/R
Prasanna, EAS 24 2 6/94 18.79 54.04
Bedi, B S 16 1 6/127 23.19 70.31
Nadkarni, R G 14 1 6/43 17.93 81.79
In 1976 the spinners were declining. Prasanna was in the 14th year of a 16 year long career and Chandra in his 12th of 15. Yet these two bowled well enough to allow India to draw the series 1-1.
Code:
Player W Best 5w Avg S/R
Prasanna, EAS 11 8/76 1 20.27 51.64
Chandrasekhar 11 6/94 1 26.73 65.36
Makes you wonder about the modern day great spinners of India doesn't it. These guys did it with next to no help from the seamers. There wasn't even a solitary Kapil Dev in sight let alone three fast medium to medium fast bowlers in the side and a couple waiting on the sidelines.. |
Eden park in the 70's and 80's was always a spinners paradise and the track in '76 when India won was a slow turner , from day one which did help Chandra and Prasanna - Chandra claimed most of the kiwi batsman (incl John Parker who scored a gritty ton were given at least 2-3 lbw reprieves ) - and John Bracewell at least twice in memory bowled the kiwis to victory at this venue .
Still point accepted - that with Madan Lal and the amiable Jimmy Amarnath to open with the new ball it was an impressive feat for the Spin trio to bowl out a strong batting line up that included Congdon , Turner , Brian Hastings and John Parker.
However at Christchurch and Wellington (where India was routed by Hadlee's 7-23 ) - the pitches were absolute green tops and the great spinners struggled and had meager rewards compared to the first test. NZ even dropped their impressive leggie David O Sullivan , prepared a green top and took a 4 pronged pace attack in Dayle , Hadlee , Cairns and Collinge and in near freezing conditions the Indian spinners could hardly grip let alone spin the bowl - which means climatic conditions rather than the state of the pitch had an effect on the great Quartet of spinners.