All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

192 Fergie Gupte After his West Indian success Gupte maintained his form the following year in India, taking another 27 wickets in five unofficial Tests against the touring Commonwealth XI, and then at the beginning of the next season becoming the first Indian to take an all-ten, in a match which was among those arranged to mark the Silver Jubilee of the India Cricket Board of Control. The Brabourne Stadium was at the time one of the few grounds on which at least three triple-centuries had been scored (the tally there now stands at five), and apart from Gupte nobody has yet taken nine or more wickets in an innings there. It was India’s premier Test ground with an impressive clubhouse whose upper floors contained luxurious rooms where visiting cricketers could stay. Cricket politics would lead to its loss of Test status in the mid-1970s, although one match was played there against Sri Lanka in 2009. Holders of the Ranji Trophy, Bombay were a powerful side. Only one of the eleven would never play Test cricket: opener Yatin Rele who nevertheless averaged a healthy 51 in a 12-match career. The visitors also had a strong side, seven of them having played for Pakistan, six of them at The Oval four months earlier when the fledgling cricketing nation had become the first to win a Test in its first rubber in England. Their captain Abdul Kardar had also appeared three times for India before Partition. He was, according to his Wisden obituary, an idiosyncratic and fearless cricketer and the father figure of Pakistani cricket, although ‘diplomacy may not have come easily to him’. Batting first the combined side didn’t give a very good account of themselves, with Shujauddin the only batsman to get a decent score whilst the rest of the side struggled against Gupte’s varied spin. He was on early and struck soon, luring Alimuddin out of his crease with the score 33 (the best partnership of the innings). Narendra Tamhane would play his first match for India on New Year’s Day the following month, and when his 21-match Test career ended six years later he was India’s leading wicketkeeper with 51 victims. The other opener, wicketkeeper Imtiaz Ahmed, one of the ground’s triple-centurions, was the only other batsman to get into the 20s, before Gupte bowled him. The following October, batting at number eight against New Zealand, he made 209, the first of his three Test centuries. Only Wasim Akram (257 not out against Zimbabwe 41 years later) has also made a Test double-century from such a lowly position. The only batsman who failed to score was Khan Mohammad, a feat he would emulate in his second innings. The Bombay attack comprised Test bowlers Gupte, Vinoo Mankad, Gulabrai Ramchand, Bal Dani, and a future international Gundibail Sunderam, and yet apart from Gupte none managed a wicket. Most surprisingly slow left- armer and Bombay captain Vinoo Mankad went without despite bowling 23 overs, although no doubt his steadiness helped Gupte at the other end. Mankad was one of Test cricket’s true allrounders, worth his place in the side both as batsman and bowler. He finished his Test career in 1959 with 162 wickets and 2,109 runs. At the time he was India’s highest wicket- taker, and held the record for his country’s highest score (231) and highest score against England (184).