Mar 17, 2004 05:17 AM
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(Updated Mar 17, 2004 05:19 AM)
Came in 1986 test series in England against A deterred David Gower's led English Team which didn't include its top players like Botham, Tavare, Fowler in test side. Botham was hampered by controversies and a serious back injury and fowler and tavare, England's regular opening batsmen that got them many a good start in the early 80s, were out with lack of form. Kapil Dev was skipper of the side for India and it included all the major players that were there in 1985 benson and hedges champion trophy victory, Dilip Vengsarkar was having the time of his life.
1st Test At Lords, He scored his third consecutive test century in as many appereanaces and the only to do that feat. A classy 126 not out which included 16 hits to the boundary. India won that match comfortably with discipline bowling from Kapil Dev and Chetan sharma- Yes chetan sharma one point was regarded as kapil's right hand but his career end that same year when javed miandad hit for a last ball six to win a match and after that he was rarely picked. Vengsarkar on the other end was starting to give the cricket experts that he too had some place in their all time best list of batsmen.
2nd Test At leeds, he came with even a better performance, he carried his form from 1st test to leeds with a bang in first innings with a gutsy half century and another hundread(102 not out) made on a the most difficult pitch to bat on on day 3 which saw English side reduced to 90/6 and allout for 128 on day four giving India a victory by a big margin.
3rd test went into a draw, with vengsarkar making consolation runs. It was clear that He was the man of the series was awarded, but not to outdone any english player the MCC also awarded man of the series to Mike Gatting who made one century, it was later noticed that MCC couldn't accept the fact that England was beaten hands down, so to show a good faith in english cricket they were moved to make such a moves but the man of series solely belonged to Vengsarkar.
Dilip Vengsarkar never backed up from a challenge, it was a crisp and a solid stroke maker, but his only weakness amongst the giant batsmen he was surrounded by during his at that time, mainly jimmy amarnath, Gavaskar, Vishwanath, kapil dev and Sandeep Patil was that he was never comfortable against a quality fast bowler his technique neither allowed him to move an inch backwards or front, he was always caught in the middle of the crease, so if you see him him bat against a fast bowler in any footage you will always see that he played from an uncomfortable stance whenever the ball was pitched up to him with genuine amount of pace. He did murder medium pacers no doubt and he left no stone unturned when it came to batting against spinners.
Truly a marvellous batsmen and one of the most prolific for India, from late 1970s to late 1980s he amazed 6000+ test runs and a healthy One day Cricket record.
