Prasanna, Hadlee shine in drawn series

The Indian team in 1967-68 came to New Zealand after completing their tour of Australia. Eight years later, it was again a dual tour but on this occasion the Indians first visited New Zealand before going on to the West Indies.

By this time New Zealand were no longer the weakest team among the cricketing nations. They had won a series in Pakistan, come tantalizingly close to repeating the feat in India, shared a rubber in West Indies and registered their first victory over Australia. The years preceding the series had seen New Zealand produce world-class players in Glenn Turner, Richard Hadlee and Ken Wadsworth while experienced hands like Richard Collinge, Dayle Hadlee, Bevan Congdon, Headley Howarth and Mark Burgess were still around.

It was thus always on the cards that the three-match Test series to be held in January-February 1976 would be closely contested and it indeed was. India won the first Test at Auckland by eight wickets, the rain-affected second Test at Christchurch was drawn while New Zealand drew level by taking the final Test at Wellington by an innings and 33 runs.

The Indians were by no means a weak side. The spin quartet was at their peak while the batting revolved around Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Brijesh Patel and the Amarnath brothers Surinder and Mohinder while a lot was expected from `new boy' Dilip Vengsarkar. Also for once, the Indians were not handicapped in the new-ball department. Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal not only made sure that India would make early breakthroughs but the two did a lot of stock bowling too.

The windy conditions encouraged seam bowling and in the second Test there was the unusual sight of the two Indian opening bowlers sending down a total of 68.1 overs between them to take nine wickets while Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrasekhar sent down 64 overs to capture just one wicket between them.

But if the conditions helped Madan Lal and Mohinder then it was obvious that New Zealand's seam trio of Richard Collinge and the Hadlee brothers Richard and Dayle would relish the conditions even more. The pitches for the second and third Tests were seam oriented and in the cold, blistery conditions, Collinge (6 for 63) and Dayle Hadlee (3 for 76) restricted the Indian first innings total to 270.

In the final Test, Richard Hadlee was in his elements. Reveling in the windy conditions at the Basin Reserve, the future worldrecord holder had match figures of 11 for 58 to star in New Zealand's first-ever victory by an innings. He was particularly devastating in the second innings, taking seven for 23 as India collapsed for 81, the lowest total in contests between the two countries.

Earlier, India won the first Test with a day to spare in conditions suiting spin bowling. Prasanna with figures of three for 64 and eight for 76 was the star and in the process he overtook Vinoo Mankad's long-standing record of 162 Test wickets - the highest tally by an Indian.

Another stellar performance came from Surinder Amarnath who emulated his father's feat of scoring a hundred on Test debut. With Lala Amarnath having got a century in his first Test against England at Bombay 42 years before, it made the duo the first father-son combination to achieve this feat in Test cricket. The left-handed Surinder who got 124, dominated a record second wicket partnership of 204 runs with Gavaskar (116). Chandrasekhar too played a notable role in the victory taking six for 94 in the first innings.

Gavaskar stood in as captain for the regular tour captain Bishan Bedi who sustained a leg injury on the eve of the Test and he emulated Polly Umrigar by leading India to victory in his first Test as captain.

Thereafter however the tide turned against the tourists in conditions generally alien to them. New Zealand had the better of the drawn second Test and clearly outplayed India in the final game of the series. Viswanath came up with two fine knocks of 83 and 79 at Christchurch while Patel contributed a fighting 81 at Wellington. Syed Kirmani who made his Test debut in the series equaled the world record of six dismissals in an innings then shared by Wally Grout, John Murray and Dennis Lindsay.

But these were a few crumbs of comfort for the tourists towards the latter half of the tour when New Zealand had the better share of the exchanges. Besides the bowling of Collinge and the Hadlee brothers, New Zealand were well served by the batting. Turner got New Zealand's only century of the series in the second Test while Burgess came up with a stroke-filled 95 in the third Test and veteran Bevan Congdon displayed his consistency with successive scores of 54, 54, 58 and 52.