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Journalism of Courage
India8217;s port of gain in the West Indies has been the Queen8217;s Park Oval, nestled in the island of Trinidad. Wednesday was no different as Saurav Ganguly8217;s men upstaged the West Indies by 37 runs in the second Test to gain a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series. It was the third time that the Indians had defeated the hosts at the same venue since Ajit Wadekar8217;s side notched a seven-wicket win in 1970-71. Though India repeated the winning act five years later with a world record run-chase, the third victory took 26 years. But it didn8217;t deter the members of the Class of 8217;71 from expressing their delight when Indian Express sought their reaction on Thursday.
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India8217;s Port of Gains
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March 6-10, 1971 April 7-12, 1976 Captains: Bishan Singh Bedi, Clive Lloyd |
While Wadekar, who was tuned into the match till the last moment, felt it was 8216;8216;a superb victory where everybody contributed,8217;8217; Ashok Mankad, who had opened the innings with debutant Sunil Gavaskar, remarked, 8216;8216;it is a wonderful thing to have happened. The team should savour it.8217;8217;
Middle-order batsman Dilip Sardesai, who had cracked 112 at the Queen8217;s Park 32 years ago, said: 8216;8216;It was commendable how the boys fought till the end. Credit must be given to all our bowlers, particulary Ashish Nehra, who was the most impressive. They were backed up by some good catching too.8217;8217;
Another Mumbai player, who was a key figure in the 1971 and 1976 victories, Eknath Solkar, observed, 8216;8216;it is a proud moment for Indian cricket.8217;8217;
Wadekar, who led the team during the triumph in 1971 lauded Javagal Srinath saying, 8216;8216;he showed admirable maturity which helped in guiding the juniors Zaheer Khan and Nehra. It was quite heartening to note that medium-pacers played a big role in the win.
The confidence from this victory should help the side in winning the series.8217;8217;
Drawing a parallel to the first ever Indian victory against the West Indies, Wadekar said, 8216;8216;It was quite similar to the 1971 win as even then we had held on to our catches, contained the West Indian batsmen 8212; who are basically strokeplayers 8212; and made them lose the patience. If it was Salim Durrani, who took the crucial wickets of Gary Sobers and Clive Lloyd in the second innings, yesterday Ashish Nehra dimissed the dangermen Brian Lara and Carl Hooper.
8216;8216;The similarity doesn8217;t end there as we would be proceeding to England as we did in 1970. And, of course, the team is being led by another left-hander!8217;8217;
Mankad felt otherwise, saying, 8216;8216;the victory in 1971 was quite comfortable unlike yesterday when West Indies had a glimmer of hope when Lara and Hooper were batting.8217;8217;
Solkar highlighted the role of the medium-pacers saying, 8216;8216;that they could afford to drop Kumble speaks for itself.8217;8217;
Mankad, however, warned that 8216;8216;the team shouldn8217;t get complacent as the series is still a long way.8217;8217; This viewpoint was corroborated by Sardesai too. 8216;8216;We must be carful at Barbados. Agreed, we have the medium-pacers but we have to get the runs too. They should go in with a regular opener,8217;8217; he added.
