Reliving India’s 1981 MCG coup
Members of the team from that famous win share their own success story even as they hail Virat’s boys
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Consider this for context: When India beat Australia at the MCG the last time, on February 11, 1981, even the oldest player in the current squad, Murali Vijay (34), was not born. Emotions and superlatives thus are bound to flow after the 137run rout of the hosts in the third Test at the coliseum of cricket on the last Sunday of 2018.
“It was a fantastic performance, an emphatic win and we beat Australia in all departments,” said Dilip Vengsarkar, a member of that victorious team of 1981, in a series India drew 1-1. “Ishant has got into form and found his rhythm. Bumrah is outstanding, and the spinner bowled well. Virat Kohli is leading from the front, literally dominating them. Cheteshwar Pujara played to a plan and tired out the bowlers allowing others around him to score. That is what matters.”
Former left-arm seamer Karsan Ghavri, easily India’s most miserly bowler in the second innings of that Test with figures of 8-4-10-2, was also elated but pointed out that the absence of good batsmen had weakened Australia. “It was a great win, we are all proud of the players, especially the bowlers. To win a Test match, you have to take 20 wickets and we have the quality pacers and spinners to take 20 wickets. Australia, unfortunately, is not a first-grade Test match team. They don’t have any quality batsman who can play a big innings like Steve Smith, David Warner or the Waugh brothers,” he said.
Ghavri lauded India’s decision not to enforce the follow-on anticipating rain on the last two days. “This MCG wicket, one couldn’t make out which way it will turn. So, the team management got it spot on,” he said.
Former stumper Syed Kirmani said the 1981 team wasn’t expected to win but had belief in their ability. “It was a fantastic victory, we didn’t expect. As a team we knew what our strengths were and cornered them,” he said over phone from Ahmedabad.
That Test turned out to be controversial when Sunil Gavaskar asked fellow opener Chetan Chauhan to also walk out after the former was controversially given out leg-before against Dennis Lillee despite protesting he had got an inside edge. “The ball The report of the sensational Melbourne victory under Sunil Gavaskar featured prominently on the front page of Hindustan Times had clearly struck the bat first. We both walked but after directions from the dressing room, I decided to go back to the crease,” Chauhan had told the newspaper after India’s famous Adelaide Test win in 2003.
Had it not been for Kirmani’s presence of mind, things could have got out of control. “I remember literally pushing our manager
FEBRUARY 12, 1981 (Wg Cdr SK Durrani) out from the dressing room and asking Chauhan to go back.”
Comparisons are unfair but there is no denying India faced greater odds then. Replying to India’s first innings 237, Australia piled up 419. An opening stand of 165 allowed India to score 324 the second time but spinners Dilip Doshi and Shivlal Yadav were walking wounded (toe fracture) thanks to crushing yorkers sent down by Len Pascoe.
Kapil Dev had pulled his thigh muscle, but with Australia set a fourth-innings target of 143, he took a pain-killing injection to continue bowling. Essentially, India had one fit bowler in Ghavri. Kapil returned a sensational match-winning 5/28.
“Once the Australians are under some kind of pressure, they succumb,” said Kirmani. “So, we capitalised on that. Pat Cummins fought very bravely in this Test. Otherwise we bottled them in this Test and also back in 1981. It’s required not to give up, not to press the panic button. That’s where you believe in your strengths and capabilities.”