India's five most humiliating defeats on home soil

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As India lost the plot against England on a rank turner pitch in Mumbai, it did not come as a surprise as the Cine capital of India has never been one of the favourite hunting grounds for the home team. Record book says, India have won 16 and have lost the same number of matches.

After the 10-wicket loss against England, deccanchronicle.com picks out India’s five most humiliating defeats on home soil.

India Vs West Indies
Venue: Eden Garden, Kolkata (1958). India lost by innings and 336 runs.

This match goes down as the worst Test defeat in Indian history. It was the West Indies tour of India and the visitors had won the toss and elected to bat at Eden Gardens, Calcutta (then Calcutta) on December 31st 1958. It was a five-day match played till the 4th of January, 1959. No.3 batsman for West Indies, Rohan B Kanhai had scored a massive 256 runs, an innings that included 42 boundaries and lasted 400 minutes. No. 5 batsman Basil F Butcher and No.6 batsman Gary Sobers both had scored centuries each to take West Indies total to an astonishing 614 runs.

In reply, India were all out for 124 runs in the first innings and in the follow on batted to last just 154 runs. Polly R Umrigar was the lone man to withstand the West Indian pace attack in the first innings. He had scored an unbeaten 44 while in the second innings Vijay Manjrekar stood strong with an unbeaten 58.
For West Indies, pacer Roy Gilchrist had taken nine wickets while Sir Wes Hall took six wickets and Sir Gary Sobers took a wicket.

India Vs West Indies
Venue: Madras Cricket Club, Madras (1949). India lost by an innings and 193 runs.

In this historic match, India’s Dattatraya Gajanan Phadkar, a right-arm fast-medium and right-arm off break bowler, took seven of West Indies wickets in the first innings and yet could not stop the visitors from amassing 582 runs. Thanks to a grand opening stand of 239 runs between Allan F Rae (109 runs) and Jeffrey B Stollmeyer (160 runs). Sir Everton D Weekes too had scored 90 runs in that innings. In India’s chase, Mumbai’s Parsi lad Rusi Modi scored a half century while Phadkar scored 48 to take India’s total to 245.

Following on, India batted just 63 overs scoring 144 runs. Vijay S Hazare had scored 52 while the rest didn’t get past 21 runs.

Phadkar still remained the highest wicket taker in the match while West Indies right-arm pacer Prior Jones picked up six wickets.

India Vs Australia
Venue: Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi (1959). India lost by an innings and 127 runs.

India had won the toss and elected to bat but to the home team’s horror, they lost the first wicket with in the first four runs of the match. The wicket to fall was of Bengali batsman Pankaj Roy who was caught behind off Alan K Davidson’s ball. He was out on a duck.

He was soon followed by No.3 batsman Polly Umrigar who was also caught behind in a similar fashion off the same bowler. He was out on a duck too. India were reeling at 8 runs for two wickets. The lone man to lift Indian innings was Nari J Contrator who scored 41 runs. He was the fifth wicket to fall after which Indian innings ended at 135 runs.

Batting second, West Indies scored a huge 468 runs with Neil Harvey scoring 114 runs. KD Mackay had scored 78. In the second innings however, India slighthly bettered their game with Pankaj Roy scoring 99, Contractor 34 and Umrigar scored 32. India wrapped up second innings with 206 on board which was far behind West Indians.

India Vs South Africa
Venue: Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera – Ahmedabad (2008). India lost by an innings and 90 runs

Compared to the above three matches, this one is a game that contemporaries from this generation would remember. Having won the toss and electing to bat, India had lost five of the top order batsmen within the score of 53 and the sixth one falling at 55, a nightmare-start for the home team which was led by Saurav Ganguly who had gotten out on a duck.

India were all out for a mere 76 runs. South Africa were already leading the three-match series by 1-0. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar was not in the playing 11. Sehwag, Laxman, Dravid and Ganguly had failed miserably.

In reply to India’s 76, South Africa accumulated 494 runs. Youngster AB de Villiers had scored 217 off 333 balls and Jacques Kallis scored 132. Indian spinners, who were considered to give India an advantage, became mute spectators to the fireworks by de Villiers and Kallis. Anil Kumble had taken a wicket while Harbhajan Singh had taken four for 135 runs. Kumble had conceded 78 off his 33 overs.

Following on, Ganguly came back to score 87 runs while he was accompanied by VVS Laxman with whom he made a stand of 55 runs. This was followed by a strong fifth wicket partnership with MS Dhoni who scored a valuable half century. The duo notched up 110 runs partnership. India scored a face-saving 328.

Dangerous pacer Dale Steyn had taken eight of India’s wickets including that of Sehwag and Dravid in the first innings and Ganguly’s in the second innings. Makhaya Ntini had taken six wickets.
This match has gone down in history books as the fourth most humiliating defeats for India on home soil.

India Vs West Indies
Venue: Green Park, Kanpur (1983). India had lost by an innings and 83 runs.

This Indian team consisting Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Anshuman Gaekwad, Mohinder Amarnath, Sandeep Patil, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny and Kapil Dev were pitted against some of the most dreaded West Indian players in this Test match. The visitoring team comprised a formidable line-up of Gordon Greenidge, Sir Viv Richards, Clive Llyod, Larry Gomes, Desmond Haynes and Malcolm Marshall.
Electing to bat, West Indies scored 454 with Greenidge scoring 194 off 368 balls and Jeff Dujon scoring 81 while Marshall scored 92 coming out to bat at No. 7 and 8 respectively. India’s celebrated pacer Kapil Dev had taken four wickets but he had conceded 99 runs in 24.2 overs.

In reply to this humongous total, India’s openers Gavaskar and Amarnath got out for a duck while Gaekwad went for four runs. Madan Lal was the onlyface saver for India with his 63 while Binny scored 39. India wrapped by their first innings with 207 on board. Following on, they scored 164 with Ravi Shastri scoring an unbeaten 46 and Vengserkar scoring 65.

This loss for India will always remain bitter for the West Indies had come back to avenge their World Cup final defeat. This was the year India had won the coveted World Cup in the 50-over format beating West Indies in the final. The Test series in India was marked as a revenge series.