Subrata Guha (left) and Chuni Goswami (in the middle of the group)
by Sumit Gangopadhyay
December 28, 1966. Historic day.
On this day, the combined side of the lowly rated Central Zone and East Zone defeated the extraordinary West Indian team boasting of names such as Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse,Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Derryck Murray, Lester King and others. This was only loss of the West Indians on that tour.
It is interesting to note that although the combined side of Central and East Zones had defeated the visiting Australian Services side in 1945-46 and the West Indians in 1948-49, neither of those two victories had come against such a strong team.
We need to remember however that captain Garry Sobers sat the match out. Also taking a break were Conrad Hunte and Basil Butcher, which saw Murray playing as a batsman. The absence of Lance Gibbs was also rather significant.
Yet, the result was incredible.
On the first day the combined medium pace attack of Subrata Guha (4/64) and the celebrated footballer Chuni Goswami (5/47) had bowled the West Indians out for 136. In response, the fearsome Wes Hall sent back the openers Daljit Singh and Debabrata Mukherjee in quick time to reduce the home side to 21 for 2. But then Hanumant Singha and Ramesh Saxena steadied the ship. By the end of the day, the combined team were at a strong 114 for 3. Saxena had departed for a valuable 49, but Hanumant was still batting.
The following day Hanumant fell for 52, and Ambar Roy could not stick around too long, but solid contributions down the order from Suresh Saxena (32), Goswami (25), Guha (46) and a Chandrasekhar Joshi (16 not out) allowed declaration at 283 for 9. Hall’s three wickets came at the expense of 70 runs in 16 overs, which says a lot for the local batting.
And then Guha and Goswami were at them again. Except for a 35-run association between Kanhai and Lloyd, none of the other batsmen could make an impression. The day ended with the visitors on the brink of innings defeat at 103 for 9 in just 30 overs. The two bowlers had bowled unchanged.
The following morning, the first ball from Guha was skied by Lester King, fittingly into the hands of Goswami at mid on. The West Indians thus lost the match by an innings and 44 runs.
It was the seventh wicket for Guha, giving him match figures of 11 for 113. Goswami’s figures read 8 for 97.
Thus history was created in the newly established Nehru Stadium at Indore.
Brief scores:
West Indians 136 (Subrata Guha 4 for 64, Chuni Goswami 5 for 47) and 103 (Subrata Guha 7 for 49, Chuni Goswami 3 for 50) lost to Central and East Zones 283 for 9 decl. (Ramesh Saxena 49, Hanumant Singh 52, Subrata Guha 46; Wes Hall 3 for 70, Lester King 3 for 60) by an innings and 44 runs.
Translated from Bengali by Arunabha Sengupta