The day Haryana Hurricane hit England.

[Lurker]

Nothing can surpass the English summer. Except perhaps watching a game of cricket at Lords on a summer morning. But this was no ordinary day. This was the day the challenge of being the finest contemprory all-rounder would be put to test. On one side was perillious Botham who a year back had rolled over Australia pretty much by himself. On the other side was an Indian who would teach the land of Jessops and Milburns, let alone an Ian, a thing or two about big-hitting. And he could bowl as well, if not better. But that was all theory of course. It remained to be seen how it would pan out. And so the day 1 of Test 1 started. Kapil struck early having Cook leg before wicket. Then to rub it in he got out that dogged customer Chris Tavare. As was his wont Tavare had stayed for an hour and scored 4 runs. Making full use of the early morning condition Kapil was moving the ball both ways and carried the attack single-handedly. Soon he got one to nip in sharply and Alan Lamb was caught plumb in front. England 3-37. In walked the other half of the all-round contest, Ian Botham. He and David Gower went about rectifying the damage. The former going guns blazing with his bat while latter content to play his silken drives. They had barely managed a fifty partnership when Kapil produced his famed out swinger which only he was capable of and Gower was caught by Vishwanath in the slips. England 4 down for 90 odds and struggling on day 1 at Lord's. Kapil had given a tremendous display of how to bowl in English conditions. But as was the story of his life the lack of support showed through and Botham with help from Derek Randall went about building England's innings. With superb support from lower order England eventually finished at 433. A total that was unimaginable at one stage. India's reply was the story of old wine in new bottle. With Willis hitting the deck hard and Botham moving the ball with brisk pace, Indian batsmen were caught either inside the crease or give catching practice to the slip members. And so when Kapil walked to bat India were tottering at 5-45. With Gavaskar he went about trying to dig in. Kapil batting in slow gear was something that happened as regularly as an Indian winning 100 meters dash at Olympics. He managed 41, Gavaskar was dismissed for 48 and India bolted to 128. A full 305 runs behind. And so the follow-on was..well on. Indian response was much better in the second innings. Even though India lost openers rather early the other batsmen made some meaningful contribution. Led gallantly by Colonel, Dileep Vengsarkar, India reached 250 for the loss of 4 wickets. Vengsarkar had carried on with his love for Lords and was batting at 150 plus when Bob Willis produced a devastating spell of fast bowling with the new ball. He dismissed both Vengsarkar and Yashpal Sharma at the same score and from a rather healthy 252/4 India were suddenly 252/6, still needing 53 runs to make England bat again. This was the score at which Kapil walked in. However India's chances were done no good when Ashok Malhotra was caught behind at 254 and soon enough Kirmani departed too. Bob Willis had taken 4 wickets in 4 overs and was breathing fire. And then fire met fire. Launching in a full attack mode that would shame a Japanese kamikaze, Kapil went ballistic. Going into the full attack mode he single handedly took the game into the 5th day. Reserving his best treatment for Botham and Willis he hit 13 spectacular 4 and 3 huge sixes. Writing in Wisden the scribe covering the game mentioned his batting as "spectacularly violent" and that "his bat made the sound of gunfire". Kapil was on course to what would have been the fastest century of all times. Eventually he was dismissed last man out for 89 off paltry 55 deliveries. His innings was hampered by lack of support and the notion of keeping strike. Again going back to Wisden "His runs might have come off even fewer than 55 balls if Dilip Doshi had not been the last man in and Kapil Dev forced to neglect some runs in order to keep the strike". With him dismissed as last man England were made to chase 67 runs but not without a fight. Roaring down his run-up Kapil clean bowled Chris Tavare and then dismissed Cook leg before. When night watchman Bo Taylor was dismissed England were reeling at 3-18. Eventually Alan Lamb and Gower would lead England to glory but the point had been made. There was another all-rounder to challenge, and he was as good if not better. Kapil walked away with Man of the Match. Wisden conceded that "he had enjoyed as glorious a session of play as any immortal of the game. " Scorecard http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982/IND_IN_ENG/IND_ENG_T1_10-15JUN1982.html Epilogue: Kapil would follow his 89 with 65 and 97. Everytime he walked in he seemed to be on course of fastest century of all times. He would end up with 292 runs and 10 wickets in the 3 test series and was named the Man of the Series. The question of best all-rounder, atleast in the series, had been well and truly settled. xxxxx

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: The day Haryana Hurricane hit England. -- Removed on request of the user --

[Dhondy]

Re: The day Haryana Hurricane hit England. Brilliant...as usual. Reading this makes me wistful. I guess we'll never see the likes of him again.

[Gambit]

Was going over an old thread and came across this gem. An awesome read Lurker!

[satishg]

excellent post..it really brought images in my eyes as in how Kapil went all out against their bowling..great stuff Lurker:hatsoff:

[Dravid]

The question of best all-rounder, atleast in the series, had been well and truly settled. xxxxx

dont think so.. the test ENG won.. its was botham's 5 wicket haul in the 1st innings that destroyed india and won ENG the test bothan also scored 67 in that test, a 126 in the 2nd test and a double century in the 3rd test and also ended up with 9 wickets + his team won the series 1-0 i know kapil had no help at all and stuff, but botham was equally good if not better in that series nice read though :hatsoff:

[doubt]

good post only two seamers that too first test against england in england :D

[fineleg]

Lurker, :two_thumbs_up:

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Tapioca]

Wisden conceded that "he had enjoyed as glorious a session of play as any immortal of the game. "

This should perhaps be stressed. At tea, India were 252 for 4. Kapil came in to bat after two wickets had fallen in the final session, and scored 89 and took 3 for 11 before close of play - inarguably the greatest all-round performance in a single session in Test history.

The question of best all-rounder, atleast in the series, had been well and truly settled.

As Dravid said in his post, Botham had a better series numerically - more runs and only a wicket less than Kapil Dev. But Kapil won the Man of the Series award because of his performance was qualitatively better. Later in the summer, Pakistan played a three Test series and Imran beat Botham more convincingly. Imran scored 212 runs and took 21 wickets, till date the only player to do the 200-20 double in a 3-Test series.