India on tour: The champagne moments

The wide disparity between India's home and away record is not a new phenomenon. It is something that goes back to the early days of Indian Test cricket. From June 1932 to February 1968, India had played 104 Tests, of which 43 were abroad. And India had not won even one Test in England, Australia, West Indies and Pakistan. All of India's ten victories till then had been achieved at home.

There was some hope however that India would break the ice on their maiden trip to New Zealand in 1968, where the national team proceeded to after their disastrous tour of Australia on which India had lost all four Tests. Not because the Indian team was particularly strong, but because the weakness of the New Zealand team was well known. New Zealand were the only team below India in the Test standings of the time, even if there were no official rating system as is prevalent now. Moreover, on both occasions that New Zealand had visited India, they had lost the series. If there was one country against which India did enjoy the psychological advantage it was New Zealand. But then India at the same time had to overcome the psychological disadvantage in that they had not won a single Test outside their own country and New Zealand could proudly point out that they had drawn the last two contests played in their own country, each a three Test series against South Africa and England.

The Indian team, after a poor start in Australia, seemed to be coming into their own towards the end of the tour and so were not entirely bereft of confidence when they landed in Dunedin for the first Test. And yet it was not until the New Zealand second innings got underway that India asserted itself and put itself on the road to victory. Graham Dowling's 143 and his record second wicket partnership of 155 runs with Bevan Congdon (58) saw New Zealand get 350. Consistent batting down the order saw India gain a first innings lead of nine runs. This was one of the rare occasions when all the Indian batsmen reached double figures and the scores ranged between 12 and 80. But it was the last wicket stand of 57 between No 10 Ramakant Desai (32) and No 11 Bishen Bedi (22) that really proved vital for it enabled them to take the lead. Desai, playing in the last of his 28 Tests, put up a brave show. Early in the innings, his jaw had been fractured by a ball from Dick Motz. But he continued batting and put on India's best tenth wicket stand against New Zealand. In the second innings, Erapalli Prasanna (6 for 94) proved too strong for the home team batsmen and restricted them to a total of 208. Left with a target of 200, India thanks chiefly to Ajit Wadekar (71), Rusi Surti (44) and their third wicket partnership of 103 runs, coasted home early on the final morning. Whatever the opposition, it was a victory to rejoice for no one could take away its historic aspect.

The Indian team however suffered a setback a week later when, against all expectations, they lost the second Test at Christchurch by six wickets. A mighty 239 by the new captain Dowling ­ New Zealand's best score in Tests ­ saw the home team rattle up 502 and India were then always struggling to stay in the game. The inability of any Indian batsman to match Dowling or even come up with a century was a factor in the ultimate defeat for in the two innings, the top scores were 67 and 63. India were all out for 288, and in the follow on hardly did any better getting 301. New Zealand knocked up the required 88 runs for the loss of four wickets to register their first victory over India.

Recovering quickly, the Indians showed New Zealand that they were the better team and in the next two weeks scored victories by eight wickets and 272 runs to take the series by a comfortable 3-1 margin. Prasanna (5 for 32) bowled out New Zealand for 186 in the first innings of the third Test at Wellington and then Wadekar played the anchor role to perfection in getting 143, his only Test century. India obtained a first innings lead of 141 and then Nadkarni (6 for 43) ran through the New Zealand second innings in his penultimate Test. An inadequate total of 199 left India with only the formality of getting 59 runs to go ahead in the series again. The Indians displayed their superiority in no uncertain terms in the final Test at Auckland. Eight hours and 20 minutes of playing time were lost on the first two days but the visitors took this in their stride. Though they were restricted to 252, the Indians with Prasanna (4 for 44) again in fine form got a stranglehold early on the fourth morning by dismissing New Zealand for 140. Tey then consolidated their position by declaring the second innings at 261 for five on the fifth morning. Surti, out for 99, was destined never to get a Test hundred. A victory target of 374 was purely academic and the only interest was whether New Zealand would save the game. Prasanna (4 for 40) and Bedi (3 for 14) made sure of a third Indian victory by dismissing the home team for 101. It not only signaled India's maiden series win abroad, but was also the first time that India had won three victories in any rubber. Prasanna's bowling, which gave him 24 wickets, was the main highlight of the series.