Spirit Of The Times

December 17, 1933

The score was 21 for 2 when 38-year old Indian captain CK Nayudu strode to the creaseto join 22-year-old debutant Lala Amarnath. This was only India's second Test match, thefirst in India, and England, led by Douglas Jardine, were heading for an innings victory,still 198 in front as India's second innings seemed set to unravel. Legend has it thatNayudu whispered something in Amarnath's ear as the partnership began. Normally, a captainwould tell a debutant in a situation like this to be patient, forego his strokes, justhang in there. Not this captain. Not this debutant.

In a dazzling counterattack that would make Adam Gilchrist seem a plodder, Amarnathtook the momentum - and the breath - away. An imperious driver of the ball on either sideof the wicket, he savaged anything pitched up, and was equally comfortable on thebackfoot, cutting and pulling with an ease that befuddled the Englishmen. Using his feetto throw left-armer Hedley Verity -one of the greats of the game - off his length, rockingback to hook left arm fast bowler Nobby Clark (a shot Lala's son, Mohinder, inherited), hemarauded his way to 83 in just an hour and 18 minutes. The initiative seized, Nayudu had achat with him again, and Amarnath slowed down to reach his hundred in his 117th minute atthe crease, in what would today be less than a session of play. He eventually finished on118, after adding 186 runs with Nayudu.

Typical of India ever since, Amarnath's individual brilliance came in a lost cause;England won by nine wickets. Equally sadly, India's first century was to be Amarnath'slast, as his career was blighted by a mixture of politics and circumstance. But in thosetwo hours at the crease, Amarnath had asserted that India was fazed by no one, that itwould play the game on its own terms. In this, he symbolised the spirit of the times.