All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

212 Premangsu Chatterjee Assam followed on 451 runs behind. They were never going to get close to saving the match, but at least 245 was a respectable score. K.K. Baishya made 42 and extras added a useful 43, but the main contribution came again from the hardworking Girdhari who made exactly 100 and whose impressive, almost single-handed allround performance had unfortunately been in a losing cause. The only Assam batsman to score a century on the ground, Girdhari was coming towards the end of a 19-year, 48-match career that had begun in 1940. His best however was yet to come. In his next match, against Orissa, he scored 229 not out, and then two years later, again against Orissa, but now playing for Bengal, he had first- innings figures of six for 37 and then followed this by scoring 129 not out. Curiously, after his record-breaking first-innings performance, Chatterjee bowled 28 overs in Assam’s second innings without taking any wickets, although he did take a couple of catches. The damage was done this time by Phadkar’s seven for 65. Chatterjee’s figures were of course a Ranji Trophy record, beating the previous record which had stood for just two months since Vasant Ranjane, bowling fast-medium, had taken nine for 35 for Maharashtra against Saurashtra. Unlike Chatterjee who had made his first-class debut ten years before, it was 19-year-old Ranjane’s first match. And his performance might have been even more remarkable if Bapu Nadkarni hadn’t taken the last wicket after Ranjane had taken the first nine and prevented him becoming the second bowler, after Albert Moss, to take an all-ten on debut. Indian Cricket made Chatterjee one its five Cricketers of the Year. He was in good company. The other four were Australians Richie Benaud, Jim Burke, Neil Harvey and Ray Lindwall who had all impressed in the three Tests that they had played on the way back from their unsuccessful tour of Britain. After the group stage, Bengal qualified for the Ranji Trophy semi-final where they came up against Services at Eden Gardens. Unfortunately rain interfered and the match was decided on the toss of a coin, won by Services, an unlucky outcome for Bengal who had made 302 for four (Pankaj Roy 159 not out) in response to Services’ 399 (Chatterjee four for 141 from 61 overs) and were thus denied the chance of a victory on first innings, which would have taken them through. It would be over 30 years before they won the Trophy for a second time. Chatterjee played his last first-class match in January 1960. The previous season had been his most prolific (32 wickets in six matches) and included figures of seven for 17 in a zonal Ranji Trophy match against Bihar and, in the Final, first-innings figures, in an eventual losing cause, of six for 76 against Bombay. In a 13-year career he only played 32 matches, but his record of 134 wickets at 17.75 runs apiece is a creditable one. He might have played more first-class cricket but for the dictates of his professional career. He served as a college professor and university examiner before going to England, where he did a postgraduate course in personnel management at Manchester University, returning to India to become Industrial Relations Officer with Reckitt and Colman.