This month 50 years ago, Dilip Vengsarkar arrived on the scene with an epic Irani Cup hundred for Bombay vs Rest of India in 1975
Dilip Vengsarkar. PIC/MID-DAY ARCHIVES
There are certain innings that define players no matter how many more achievements come their way. Jemimah Rodrigues’s unbeaten 127, that helped India stun Australia in the World Cup semi-final, will forever stand out in a crown that radiates her brilliance as a batter.
The year 2025 will go down as the year in which one knock led to a title triumph that took women’s cricket in India to a place that is brighter, higher, and more spacious for dreams to be realised. And Rodrigues will always have to answer questions about the innings that did not just border on the unbelievable (border, because anything is possible in sport) but also envelope a nation with joy. Simply put, the innings will be talked about.
In the afterglow of Rodrigues’s achievement, I realised that this month marks 50 years for another epic innings in Indian cricket — Dilip Vengsarkar’s 110 for Bombay in the 1975-76 Irani Cup game at Nagpur on November 3, 1975.
Vengsarkar, then 19, was told that he was in the playing XI on match eve, when Eknath Solkar split a webbing on his palm. For him, it was a great chance to put his recent Ranji Trophy debut duck against Gujarat in late October behind and move on.
And he did it by smashing the likes of newly-appointed India skipper Bishan Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna like no other young domestic batsman had ever done, while Bombay responded to Rest of India’s meagre 210.
Sportsweek magazine’s Hosey Mistry captures three of Dilip Vengsarkar’s seven sixes. Pic courtesy/Sportsweek
Vengsarkar’s 113-minute 110 had seven sixes and 11 fours. The spin attack also included leggie Ashwini Minna, who had sent back Bombay captain Sunil Gavaskar for 47 earlier in the day. Bombay’s first innings 305 helped them regain the Irani Cup.
Vengsarkar was pleasantly surprised to learn about the innings’ golden jubilee when I spoke to him on Tuesday.
His utterances truly reflected a Mumbai cricketer’s approach and awareness, thankfully seen among cricketers from other regions too. Vengsarkar indicated to me that there was no other option but to leave behind that Ranji Trophy duck and move on. And when that Irani Cup opportunity came, he had to grab it no matter who the Rest of India had in their ranks.
He also dwelled on the “good nick and confidence” factor. He recalled that he was in good form before that Irani Cup fixture — a fruitful tour of Sri Lanka organised by the late Ajit Wadekar, 171 against Delhi in the Rohinton Baria Trophy final in January of 1975. He also spoke about a double century for Podar College against Sydenham College at Wankhede Stadium.
His Podar College teammate Avadhoot Zarapkar was a reserve player in the Bombay team for the Irani Cup. He was asked to be on scorebook duty. Can one imagine a reserve doing scoring in a high-profile match today?
“It was such a thrill to see Dilip smack those sixes against Bedi and Prasanna. It was also unbelievable, because we were used to batsmen hitting along the ground. But this was extraordinary batting, looking like a man possessed. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Zarapkar told me on Tuesday.
“It’s all about confidence,” said Vengsarkar, placing that factor as paramount no matter how reputed the bowlers were. “They [Bedi and Prasanna] were great bowlers but I didn’t get overawed. The first time I saw them, I was playing against them,” revealed Vengsarkar.
Bedi and Prasanna didn’t seem to be their sharpest, although the great offie vowed to his teammates that he would dismiss the No. 5 Irani Cup debutant, and he did. But a batting star who would serve India for 16 seasons was born; a star that was used to distinguished company. He played for a club — Dadar Union Sporting Club — which had some of the greatest names in Mumbai cricket, Gavaskar included. And like other premier clubs, Dadar Union’s opponents involved big names too.
Vengsarkar’s knock gained more traction than Mumbai’s first innings lead-based triumph. It provided fodder to the media, and they didn’t hold back the adjectives.
In his report for the 1976 Indian Cricket annual, R Mohan wrote:
“Many youngsters playing in this match were on the periphery of national recognition and one who seized the opportunity with both hands was Vengsarkar, a 19-year-old from Bombay.
“He put to sword the spin of Prasanna and Bedi, handing out the sort of rough treatment that the pair had not received in many years even in international cricket.”
Mohan, who went on to extensively cover Vengsarkar’s international pursuits, said the attack on Bedi and Prasanna was made with “regal disdain.”
Ron Hendricks, no stranger to press boxes across multiple sports, waxed eloquent in Sportsweek’s World of Cricket: “Vengsarkar, a hard-hitting right hander used the rapier rather than the bludgeon to bruise and batter Bedi and Prasanna on an easy-paced pitch on which the ball turned slowly. Prasanna and Bedi were snowed under an avalanche of fours and sixes.”
Among all the compliments, a major one emerged in the form of Colonel. It is believed that Lala Amarnath, India’s first Test centurion, was asked for his views on Vengsarkar during his radio commentary stint. Amarnath felt Vengsarkar batted like his first Test captain, Colonel CK Nayudu. A writer caught on, did not lose sight of Nagpur being Nayudu’s birthplace, and gave Vengsarkar the nickname Colonel. The recipient of the sobriquet didn’t like it, though. I asked him why on Tuesday. “I got tired of people asking me which year I was in the army,” said Vengsarkar. Indian cricket lovers of that era have never tired of finding recall value to Vengsarkar’s Irani Cup hundred.
Chances are that Rodrigues’s World Cup 127 will be no different. But like Vengsarkar, she must end up being an all-time great.
mid-day’s Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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