All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

193 Fergie Gupte There was enough time left for Bombay to reach 107 for one by the close of the first day, a score that they would eventually extend to 422, mainly thanks to Ramchand (101), Vijay Manjrekar (99) and Pankaj Roy (88). Roy and Manjrekar, together with Mankad, would all have sons who also played for India. The hard-worked Shujauddin toiled for 50 overs with his left-arm spin to take four for 127, and then completed a fine allround match by scoring 74, his second fifty of the game, in another poor performance by the visitors. This time neither Gupte nor Mankad was required to turn his arm over. In fact, so inconsequential was most of the batting that Manjrekar, who only took 20 wickets in a career lasting 23 years, had the best figures (four for 21), albeit that most of his victims were in the lower order. The match had been scheduled for three days but was extended to four as there was no play on 5 December as a mark of respect following the death of Sir Girija Shankar Bajpal, the Governor of Bombay. Gupte might have had another all-ten four years later. In 1958/59 he took 22 wickets in five Tests against the touring West Indians captained by wicketkeeper Gerry Alexander. The West Indies were building another great team and, with Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai and Basil Butcher all scoring heavily, they ‘swept through the subcontinent on a flood tide of runs’ ( Wisden ). Gupte paid a high price, 42 runs each, for his wickets, but he had little support at the other end, with nobody else taking more than five wickets in the series. In the first innings of the Second Test he took nine for 102 on Kanpur’s jute matting, the first time a bowler had taken nine wickets in an innings for India. As he had taken the first seven wickets there was a time when it looked as if his performance might have been even more historic. And it probably would have been if Tamhane had not dropped Lance Gibbs, the one wicket that Gupte missed out on. Surprisingly the Wisden match report makes no reference to Gupte’s historic feat. Gupte toured England just once, with the 1959 Indian side that lost all five Tests. He was the side’s leading wicket-taker with 95 in all matches. However, as he was familiar with English conditions, having played in the Lancashire League, and as the fine summer and consequent hard wickets should have suited him, his performance in the Tests - 17 wickets at 35 each - was a disappointment. Often used as a defensive stock bowler he never looked like a match-winner and seemed to lose heart, possibly because of the poor support he got from his fielders. Gupte’s Test career ended in unfortunate circumstances just over two years later after he had played in the Third Test against Ted Dexter’s England side. A receptionist complained that Kripal Singh, Gupte’s room- mate in the Delhi team hotel, had tried to make a date with her. A flimsy investigation was carried out and Gupte was reprimanded for not trying to stop Kripal Singh, and consequently omitted from the Indian tour of the West Indies that took place in early 1962. The disillusioned Gupte’s first- class career was nearly over, although happily he was not totally forgotten by Indian cricket and a benefit match was held for him in Sharjah in 1982.