Playfield - 1948... Up to Dec. 19, 1948 (19 December 1948)

19 December 1948

Playfield - 1948... Up to Dec. 19, 1948

The Hindu

An announcement from Lord's in London named newcomers to the first class umpires list. Two of the debutants who were to stand from the start of the 1949 English summer were S. J. Staples of Nottinghamshire, and W R Price of Middlesex, Both had played for England. Sam Staples was a reputed bowler, and one of the best spinners in the history of the Nottinghamshire Cricket Club. During his first-class career, Staples took 1,400 wickets. Fred Price, a wicket-keeper batsman had made his first appearance for Middlesex in 1927. Eleven years later, during the last Ashes series before the Second World War, Price, an excellent performer with the bat as well as with the big gloves, was chosen to play for England against Australia in the fourth Test at Leeds.

As much as he was a sound cricketer, Price was also a superbly entertaining wit. In the summer of 1937, he performed a remarkable feat by catching seven men in Yorkshire's first innings against Middlesex at Lord's. While returning to the pavilion, hailed by his team mates and spectators alike, a formidably built lady pushed forward towards him and exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. Price I was so thrilled by your fine performance, that I nearly fell over the balcony." The irrepressible Fred Price replied instantly, ``If You had fallen, Madam, I would have caught you as well.''

Again the West Indies displayed its might against India in the second Test of the series played at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. The visitors won the toss on a good wicket, and proceeded to put the hosts to a leather-hunt, piling up 629 for six, before Goddard declared and set his bowlers out on their quest for victory. India drew the match with a good second innings performance.

In their only innings, the visitors had had an excellent 134 start between Rae and Stollmeyer. The latter fell to Mankad for 66, but Rae posted 104, before he was caught and bowled by phadkar. Walcott made 68, and following him, Weekes murdered the bowling to add 194. India could only be thankful that it stopped the elegant tormentor before he reached his double-hundred, Sen stumping him off Mankad. Gomez was the only failure in the innings, caught by Sen off Hazare for 7. Christiani (lbw to Mankad) made 74, R J. Cameron 75 not out, and at the closure, Atkinson was 23 not out. The most successful bowler for India was left-arm spinner Vinoo Mankad, who also sent down the largest number of overs to emerge with the analysis of 75-16- 202-3. Another Trojan with the ball was Vijay Hazare who returned the figures, 42-12-74-1. Under considerable psychological pressure, India opened disastrously to make matters worse for themselves. Inform Ibrahim was run out for 9, and Modi, from whom much has expected, was caught off Ferguson for just 1.

Next, opener Mankad, who had been shaping well, fell for 21. Hazare and Adhikari staged a recovery of sorts, before the former departed for 26. Adhikari made 34. Phadkar helped the late order do better than the first half, he scored '74, Amarnath made 24, and the tall young Umrigar, making his debut and coming in at No. 8, contributed 30. India was all out for 273. Promptly then, Goddard asked the hosts to follow on. Another bad start saw India lose Ibrahim (0) at 1, and Mankad (16) at 33. Modi (56) and Hazare saw the home team on to 95 for two, at the end of the fourth day. On the last day, these two off their first innings failures, to score a century apiece. Modi made 112, and Hazare stayed through to the very end with 134 not out.

Amarnath was on an unbeaten 58 when stumps were drawn to register the second successive draw. While the West Indians and the hosts agreed that Modi and Hazare had stood between them and a West Indian victory, Lala Amarnath said that India needed to improve its fielding considerably to do well in Test matches.

Surprisingly the Indian selectors dropped young debutant Umrigar while naming the squad for the third Test in Calcutta. They also dropped C. R. Rangachari and S.G. Shinde, and named Mushtaq Ali, Sudanshu Bannerjee, and Ghulam Ahmed in their place.