Shri C Prahlad Rao – a retired General Manager of Dena Bank is an avid follower of the game from his teens. His razor sharp memory and his recollection of the game is just fabulous. He essays into his pet subject – Cricket – with an article “Down the Memory Lane on DA Warner’s pre lunch test century against Pakistan in the recently concluded test series. Read on his wonderful article
Everyone connected with cricket from Cricket fans to media, commentators, writers, statisticians, officials, went gaga over David Warner’s pre-lunch hundred on the first day of Sydney Test against Pakistan. This was a magnificent effort and also a rare record. Warner truly deserves all the praise coming his way.
However, while not taking anything away from Warner’s feat, I thought Farooq Engineer’s near-hundred before lunch on the first day of the 3rd test against WI in Chennai (though not a record, as centuries only count in the cold record books) ranks much higher for the following reasons:
(1) India were pitted against a formidable West Indies team skippered by Sir Garfield Sobers, one of the greatest all-rounders of all time and boasted of such greats as Rohan Kanhai, Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Conrad Hunte and Lance Gibbs.
(2) India had already lost the series badly, losing heavily in Mumbai and Kolkata. The Kolkata test was lost by an innings and was marked by a meek surrender. This enraged the fans so much that there were riots in the Eden Gardens after a section was set on fire by the angry spectators. Charlie Griffith went on record saying that he was chased by an angry mob which would have lynched him but for a timely rescue act mounted by rival skipper MAK Pataudi.
(3) Engineer was recalled from wildernesses to replace the regular keeper BK Kunderan and was promptly asked to open the innings, as there was no regular opener to partner DN Sardesai.
(4) Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith and Garfield Sobers himself formed one of the most fearsome pace attacks in the world.
(5) However, belying all expectations, Engineer exploded from the word go and went on to blast this formidable and fearsome attack to pieces in a flurry of boundaries. He was just short of hundred on the stroke of lunch, going at more than run-a-ball, registering the first century partnership for the 1st wicket.
(6) This was the pre-90-overs-per-day era; WI would have bowled less than 20 overs before lunch and his unbroken opening partnership with Sardesai was already worth about 120 at lunch. This meant he was scoring at more than 6 runs per over, which was unheard of those days.
(7) Emboldened by Engineer’s fearless batting, the other batsmen held their nerve to stick and India crossed the coveted 400 mark for the first time in the series, thanks to FM Engineer’s 108 and CG Borde’s 123 and went on to salvage the match, avoiding a 3-0 series whitewash.
8) Engineer did not wear a helmet; the helmets came into vogue much later.
(9) There was no restriction on the number of overs like today. Hall and Griffith could bowl as many bouncers as they pleased and they did pepper the Indian opening pair with repeated bouncers to contain a rampaging Engineer, but failed.
(10) One such bouncer from the same Griffith had almost killed India’s captain-opener Nari Contractor in an earlier series in the West Indeies. He survived only just, but his promising career was prematurely cut short.
Against this background, Engineer comes across as a war-hero India so badly needed at that time.
I also wonder why Australian media had left out the name of that greatest ever batsman the cricket world has seen – DG Bradman. DG Bradman has accomplished the feat of scoring a pre lunch century against England at Leeds in 1930. He scored 105 not out during the pre lunch session. In the same test during the period between Lunch and Tea – he scored 115. He was finally dismissed for a magnificent triple hundred – 334. Even after 86 years of such a feat by DG Bradman – no other batsman has ever accomplished the feat of scoring centuries in the pre lunch session and the session between Lunch and Tea. DG Bradman’s score was 309 not out at the end of the first day of the test, which means, he scored 89 not out during the session Tea and close, thus missing the feat of scoring hundred runs by eleven runs and with it the unique distinction of scoring centuries in all the three sessions of the day’s play.
As I read this article, I distinctly remember FM Engineer asking me why his name has not been included in the record books for his knock of 90 plus in the Madras test. I had met him in the first ever test at Bangalore against West Indies in November 1974
Note – The “I” in the previous paragraph is “Me” – HR Gopala Krishna
