The immigration officer at the Dam Dam Airport (Calcutta) looked a bit too pensive for a new year's day. Admittedly, the weather was unusually gloomy for this time of the year. As we had left Dhaka about an hour ago, we had seen clouds all around the sky. The climate worsened additional throughout our short fly. Frequent bumping made my to begin with ever plane journey really feel like a nightmare. As we landed at Calcutta, we were greeted by light drizzle. It was very light indeed, but it was adequate to make us really feel uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings. Much more importantly (at least from the Immigration officer's point of view) this light drizzle combined with poor light was adequate to postpone the play right after only 8 overs at the Eden Gardens. This was the 2nd day of the 3rd test (in a five test series) in between the hosts India and England. Soon the drizzle became heavier, ending any remote chance of resumption of play for the day.
Of course, the young officer was not the only 1 upset about so small play. The England captain David Gower seemed extremely reluctant to come off the field. In fact, if anybody was content to see dark clouds hovering all about the sky on a new year's day, it was the England captain. He came to India following a disastrous summer, when his side was ‘White Washed' five- by the mighty Windies. A lackluster performance in the drawn match at Lord's against SL, the new boys of world cricket, followed. And here in India, they were really predictably nicely beaten on the 1st test of the series, at Mumbai. Immediately after struggling badly to cope with the pace of Marshall and Garner all through the summer, the English batsmen failed miserably against the leg spin of young Laxman Shivaramakrishnan. The leg spinner from Tamil Nadu took 12 wickets to make certain that Gatting's brave hundred in the 2nd innings went in vain. Already, there were talks of one other ‘White-wash'. But, the Englishmen fought back brilliantly to win the 2nd test at Delhi.
Here in Caclutta, they did nicely on the 1st day to restrict India to 168/four, 3 of the wickets falling to the left arm spin of Phil Edmonds. This might give the false impression that the ball was turning square on, actually it was a mixture of fantastic thoughtful bowling mixed with not so really good batting that resulted in England taking the initiative. Each Vengsarkar (48) and Amarnath (42) threw it away after seeking set. At the close of play, debutant Azharuddin (13*) was at the wicket with in form Ravi Shastri (26*).
On the 2nd morning, as the circumstances looked great for seam bowling, Gower relied on his faster bowlers Cowans and Ellison. Specially, Ellison, from Kent was ideally suited for such condition. Despite his impressive debut in the summer, at the Oval, he was considered a gamble for ‘The Passage to India' primarily due to the fact the Indian conditions are never suitable for swing bowling. But, Ellison bowled properly to take 4 wickets in the to begin with innings at Delhi, and here, even though he was wicket-much less on the 1st day, he looked ominous on the 2nd morning, acquiring prodigious swing in both directions. Each Ravi Shastri and Azharuddin played and missed on several occasions.
Although, it was not fully unfamiliar knowledge for Ravi, getting toured NZ and England ahead of, it was a new expertise for the rookie Azza. A consistent performer in India's domestic cricket for a number of years, he also impressed in the Zimbabwe tour with the India U-25 side (led by Ravi Shastri), during the 83-84 season. Here, he got his likelihood, soon after Sandip Patil's approach against short pitch bowling looked incredibly suspicious in the prior two test matches. Ironically, Azharuddin's own strategy against the brief stuff would be questioned a lot of times by the pundits throughout his long and eventful profession. But, here on this gloomy January day, he faced little short pitch bowling. Instead, the England bowlers pitched the ball up leaving the circumstances to do the rest.
And it did a lot. The England keeper Paul Downton (like Ellison, originally from Kent, but now playing for Middlesex), and the slip cordon waited in superb anticipation as balls soon after balls whizzed pass the bat of the ideal-handers. There had been plenty of ahs and uhs, and close shouts, but sadly for England no breakthroughs. Maybe, the inexperience of the two England seam bowlers played a component. They tried to take wickets almost each and every ball. A even more experience bowler like Willis or Botham would have tried a slightly several strategy. They would have kept it nice and steady, and possibly producing 1 or two effort balls each and every more than.
Only 8 runs had been added in the roughly half an hour's play on the 2nd morning, but to their superb credit, the two Indian batsmen survived this tricky period. Then the climate and the umpires came to their rescue. Gower, the England skipper, looked completely bemused by the selection to come off. To him, the circumstances were wonderful sufficient to continue. Here, maybe, the cricketing culture of the nations conflicted. In England, it's not uncommon to play cricket in dim light, even amidst slight drizzle. Here, in the subcontinent, before the days, of floodlit cricket, cricket was generally associated with bright, sunny days. The fielders receiving tired in the mid-afternoon heat, the bat shining in blazing sunshine, the spectators taking a soft bite at the ice creams, these are the conventional scenarios in sub-continent cricket. So, not surprisingly, the umpires Ganguly and Vikramraju rapidly decided to call off the play as soon as the light drizzle started to fall over Eden.
So, there was no further play on the day. The vast crowd waited, attempting to get distinctive techniques to amuse themselves only a incredibly modest portion of them deciding to invest their afternoon elsewhere. The players were confined to the pavilion. A photo appeared in the newspapers the subsequent morning, showing the England Vice-Captain Gatting playing cards with the journalists. This picture possibly told the story of the day. The very first day of 1985, was just not suitable for test cricket at the Eden Gardens.
The weather remained fairly significantly the same the following day. Thankfully, Jan 2nd was reserved for the rest day. Yes, there used to be rest days in test matches in those days. (These had been the days ahead of the Mobile telephone, satellite Channels, World wide web Connections and so on.. Issues moved (or, at least seem to move) rather slowly). The game restarted on the next day amidst brilliant sunshine.
I was fortunate to be present at the Eden garden to watch this 3rd days play. Receiving a ticket at the middle of a test match at Eden gardens was not painless. The tickets in those days applied to be for the whole test match (five days), and expecting somebody to miss a day right after acquiring a ticket was like expecting an individual becoming invited in the royal wedding and missing it because his pet was unwell. Still, my dad utilised his connection at Calcutta, not only to get a seat for me. In truth I sat at the members' pavilion, just adjacent to the players' pavilion. Not only did I get a perfect view from behind the bowlers arm, I could get a fairly close view of the players themselves.
As England went out to field, Gower looked rather thoughtful, but his deputy Mike Gatting looked quite relaxed and pleased. This was understandable. Back in June, at Lord's Gatting was out LBW to Marshall, playing no stroke. Various at the time believed this to be the end of his international character. Significantly more than 6 years immediately after his test debut at Karachi, in Jan 1978, 81 remained his highest test score. It would possibly have remained his highest score if the selectors, in a surprise move, hadn't picked him as the deputy to Gower, ahead of Chris Tavare. Tavare, possibly angered the selectors, with his slow batting at Lord's against a depleted SL bowling, in August. But, perhaps the decision was created right after the Natwest final, also at Lord's, towards the finish of the summer. There, Middlesex, led by Gatting, won a thrilling last ball victory over Tavare's Kent.
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