India go down fighting to Lloyd's supermen

By the time India and the West Indies next met in the Caribbean, the home team was well and truly regarded as the best in the world. They was never any chance of India repeating their feat of 1971, especially after losing badly in Pakistan just before the series against the West Indies. A comfortable victory was predicted for the home team and, in the end, the 2-0 victory in the five-match series would seem to be a vindication of such forecasting.

Daring hooks became his trademark, but he also drove effortlessly and cut ferociously. To the 584 runs he scored against Pakistan, Amarnath added another 598, with two hundreds and four fifties. Little wonder then that, by the end of the tour, he was hailed as the best player of fast bowling in the world.

When the Indians landed in the West Indies, Kapil Dev, in his first assignment as captain, and manager Hanumant Singh made it clear that they did consider the home side as a formidable unit and almost invincible. But they also promised to give it everything to ensure a good series in which the West Indies would be forced to fight for victory. Instead of being accused of being defeatist in their outlook, Kapil and Hanumant received praise for quickly grasping the reality of the situation.

The home team was then in the midst of their record run of 27 matches without a loss. With the batting being manned by the likes of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd, Jeff Dujon, Larry Gomez and Gus Logie, and with a fearsome quartet of fast bowlers in Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner to back them up, it can easily be seen why the West Indians were 'numero uno' in the cricketing world by a long way.

What did India have to match this outstanding line-up? The debacle in Pakistan had necessitated a few changes, the most important one taking place at the top, with Kapil replacing Sunil Gavaskar. For the first time since 1969, the Indian team was without Gundappa Viswanath, dropped after 87 consecutive Tests.

But the batting still had a capable look about it, for besides Gavaskar and Kapil, players like Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Yashpal Sharma, Anshuman Gaekwad, Ravi Shastri and Syed Kirmani were around. The bowling too looked balanced, with Kapil, Balwinder Sandhu and Madan Lal to handle the new ball, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Shastri, Maninder Singh and L Sivaramakrishnan to give the old ball a tweak. Maninder and Siva, both teenage prodigies, had shown promise in Pakistan, while Venkat was recalled after three-and-a-quarter years, both in view of his fine performances on the two previous tours and also to lend experience to the spin attack.

Whatever the strengths of the visiting side, the line-up of the two teams clearly showed that the West Indies were the better team, more so under home conditions; this was amply reflected in the final result. But if the Indians lost, they certainly were not disgraced. The West Indies won the first Test with just four balls to spare, the series was kept alive till the final day of the fourth Test, and the tourists won a lot of friends by their fighting spirit and never-saydie attitude.

None displayed this more than Amarnath. He had come good on his comeback series in Pakistan, and now he carried this form through against the West Indies. Never flinching, Amarnath not only faced the pace quartet's barrage of bouncers and short-pitched bowling with batting that was the apotheosis of courage, but he also scored freely off them.

Daring hooks became his trademark, but he also drove effortlessly and cut ferociously. To the 584 runs he scored against Pakistan, Amarnath added another 598, with two hundreds and four fifties. Little wonder then that, by the end of the tour, he was hailed as the best player of fast bowling in the world. Such was his form that on May 3, the final day of the series, Amarnath crossed 1,000 runs for the calendar year, the fastest batsman to reach the mark.

Unfortunately the other players could not take a leaf from Amarnath's book, and the batting was rather patchy. Shastri confirmed his early promise by getting a century in the final Test, Kapil hammered an unbeaten 100 off just 95 balls in the closing stages of the drawn second Test, while Gavaskar got his customary three-figure knock (his 27th ton in Tests) in the rain-affected game at Georgetown, the venue where he had notched up his maiden hundred 12 years before. But more was expected from them, as also from Yashpal, Gaekwad and Vengsarkar.

Confronted with a line-up of awesome stroke-players, the bowlers were always going to find it tough going, and it speaks volumes for Kapil's capabilities that he took 17 wickets at an average of only 24.94. In fact, in the second game of the series, his 50th Test, he became, at 24 years and 68 days, the youngest player to complete the double of 2000 runs and 200 wickets.

The recall of Venkat was hardly successful, his 10 wickets costing him 58.60 apiece, although it must be admitted that he suffered the most through dropped catches. Maninder and Siva, perhaps a bit awed by the opposition, could make little impression in the limited opportunities that came their way. At 17 years and 118 days, Siva became the youngest Indian to make his Test debut when he played the final game of the series. Shastri at best was steady without being penetrative, while the medium-pace of Sandhu and Madan Lal proved no more than amiable. To make matters worse, Kirmani had a mediocre tour, missing a number of catches and stumpings.

From the Indian viewpoint, there was one significant event away from the Test arena - the victory in the second one-day international at Berbice. The West Indies were then the undisputed champions in the limited-overs game, while India's record was woeful. And yet, thanks mainly to Gavaskar's electrifying 90 and Kapil's swashbuckling 72 off 38 balls with seven fours and three sixes, India smashed 282 for five off 47 overs ­ then the highest total by any team against the West Indies.

Kapil, Sandhu, Madan Lal and Shastri then restricted West Indies to 255 for nine in 47 overs, and the 27-run win was just the tonic the Indians needed for their World Cup challenge in England a few months later. What happened there is, of course, much too well-known to be chronicled here.