All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

241 Pradeep Sunderam Indian side in 1986, but wasn’t. When Chetan Sharma was ruled out of the Second Test, India needed a replacement and called up the experienced Madan Lal from the Central Lancashire League. As he took three good wickets, in what proved to be his final Test, and India went two up in the three match series, it was a good choice. However Sunderam was also in the country playing league cricket in Surrey and given the chance would also no doubt have found the conditions conducive. In 1985/86 the 27 teams competing in the Ranji Trophy were divided into five zonal leagues, with the first two teams from each league going forward into the knockout stage. Vidarbha and Rajasthan played in the five-team Central Zone. Neither side was particularly strong and there were no Test players on view, past or future. None of the Vidarbha side’s batsmen would finish their careers with averages of 30, none of its bowlers with averages below 30. Failing to win any of their matches in the previous season the two sides had finished fourth and fifth respectively in the group, which was won by Uttar Pradesh. Both sides presumably therefore approached this their first match of the new season with some trepidation, especially Rajasthan who had four first-class debutants. Neither side had ever won the Trophy, although Rajasthan had reached the final a number of times in the 1960s, most recently against Karnataka in 1973/74 when Hanumant Singh’s side failed to resist the wiles of India’s spinners Prasanna and Chandrasekhar. This was the first of only five first-class matches that have been played at the Barkatullah Khan Stadium, Jodhpur (although it has staged two one- day internationals). Rather curiously, the team batting last won by nine runs (of which more later!). Most matches in the Ranji Trophy were played on grass, but a few, including this one, were played on coir matting. With the bespectacled Sunderam taking two wickets in his second over, and 5 for two quickly becoming 8 for six, the Rajasthan captain, Sanjay Vyas, must have been well pleased with his decision to ask the visitors to bat first. Having hit the stumps three times, to add to a leg-before and two caught and bowleds, Sunderam hadn’t yet needed much help from the field. At this stage several records were on the cards, including the best bowling figures in India (held by Chatterjee) and the lowest ever team score in India (21 by Muslims v Europeans, Poona 1915/16). The record for most ducks in a first-class innings was eight and as five Vidarbha batsmen had so far failed to score even this ‘achievement’ was looking vulnerable. However the visitors rallied and thanks to a dogged innings from Madan Kaore who had gone in first wicket down and remained undefeated, a hard-hit 45 from Prakash Sahasrabudhe and a tail that wagged to good effect, 8 for six, and then 69 for seven, became 140 all out. Bharat Thakre going in last made 23 on his first-class debut, a score he never came close to emulating in a 16-match career. Thirty-six-year-old Sahasrabudhe, the oldest player in the match, was in his last first-class season. He had made a century on debut 17 years before but in a 50-match career, all played for Vidarbha, only passed three figures once more.