by Arunabha Sengupta
February 1959, Delhi.
First innings
Umrigar was hit on the arm during the last stages of his fighting 76. Manjrekar fractured his thumb while trying to hook a Hall bouncer. The two did not look likely to take any further part in the match. 0-3 down in the series, odds were on another tame surrender.
However, the young leg-spinning all-rounder, playing just his fourth Test match, chose this moment to strike a defiant century against the hostile bowling of Hall and Gilchrist.
The two frightening fast bowlers carried on the saga of intimidation. Gilchrist continued to unleash hair-parting bouncers. Hall, overstepping four times, pegged back the young lad’s off-stump with a no-ball. Yet, Chandu Borde remained unperturbed, continuing to stroke freely, playing some forcing drives off the pace bowlers.
When the other bowlers came on, he drove Eric Atkinson delightfully off his toes and played Garfield Sobers and Collie Smith with consummate ease. And growing in confidence against Gilchrist, Borde guided him past point for a boundary to bring up his first Test match hundred.
Not long after that he snicked a loose delivery from Smith to Alexander to depart for 109. But there was Adhikari — the newly appointed captain after a ridiculous game of musical chairs surrounding the hot seat. He scored 63. India managed a very respectable 415.
However, aided by some butter-fingered catching, the West Indians managed to declare with a huge lead of 229. Holt, Solomon and Smith got centuries, Hunte 92.
It seemed quite a task for the Indians to survive almost seven hours with two of their frontline batsmen missing. More so when second innings got off to a disastrous start with Nari Contractor run out with just five runs on the board.
On the final morning, Pankaj Roy and Datta Gaekwad struck attractive fifties. But with the spin of Smith getting increasing help from the last day wicket, things looked ominous. The two were dismissed on either side of lunch. With the score on 135 for three, West Indies fancied their chances of pulling off their fourth victory in a row.
It was again down to Borde and Adhikari. They were essentially the last recognised pair. The aging Vinoo Mankad, padded up in the pavilion, had not been among runs in a long, long time.
As the field closed in, the two defied the West Indians yet again.
In a courageous display of counter-attack, the skipper and the freshman added 108 in 117 minutes, wiping out the deficit.
But when Smith snared Adhikari for 40, Mankad followed almost immediately and suddenly there was still enough time left in the match for the West Indians to engineer a win.
Fate had balanced the equation on the casualty list. Sobers, Atkinson and Hall had fallen prey to injuries during the innings, but the remaining bowlers tried gamely.
However, even as Gilchrist charged in with his intimidating pace in a last-ditch effort to snatch a victory in the dying stages of the game, wicketkeeper Naren Tamhane stayed with Borde for almost half an hour to ensure a draw.
The last few minutes witnessed a dramatic dash for Borde’s second hundred of the match. Gupte and Ramkant Desai were found wanting as Gilchrist’s scorching pace unsettled their stumps. With eight wickets down, Manjrekar bravely walked out, with his fractured thumb in a cast, to stay with Borde as the young man sought to emulate Vijay Hazare’s Adelaide feat of hundreds in both innings.
As Gilchrist ran in to bowl the last over of the day, Borde required four. The second ball was a typical bouncer. Borde tried to hook into the vacant outfield and tragically ended up striking his own stumps.
Stopped a stroke short of the rare glory of twin hundreds. But his three hours and 15 minutes of defiant vigil had saved the match for India..
Chandu Borde was born on 21 July 1934.