On September 30
India have taken 20 wickets in a home Test match with seam bowlers taking the majority of the visitors’ wickets only 3 times in their Test history. The most recent of these came on September 30, 2016 against New Zealand and is the only one of the three Tests which India have won. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5/48 & 1/28) and Mohammad Shami (3/70 & 3/46) bowled India to victory by 178 runs. Today is an anniversary of this unique (so far) Test in India’s Test history.
The other two instances were memorable Tests as well.
In 1999 at Eden Gardens, Javagal Srinath (5/46 & 8/86) and Venkatesh Prasad (2/27 & 1/61) took 16 wickets between them in conditions where Anil Kumble (1/48 & 0/91) managed only a solitary wicket. Saeed Anwar made a memorable 188* in Pakistan’s second innings after Moin Khan had rescued their first with 70. Sadagoppan Ramesh made 79 & 40, and Sachin Tendulkar was controversially run out after colliding with Shoaib Akhtar.
In 1949 at the CCI, Shute Banerjee (1/73 & 4/54), Dattu Phadkar (4/74 & 2/82) and Vijay Hazare (DNB & 1/13) took 12 of the 20 West Indies wickets to fall. West Indies batted first and reached 286 thanks 85 from Jeff Stollmeyer and 56 from Everton Weekes (his scores in the series until then had been 128, 194, 161, 101 & 90. India were bowled out for 193 and conceded a 1st innings lead of 93. West Indies were then bowled out again for 267 with Allan Rae making 97 and Weekes falling for only 48. With 361 to win, India made terrific progress thanks to Vijay Hazare (122) and Rusi Modi (86) who shared a fourth wicket stand of 139. India reached 355/8 with Phadkar (37*) and Ghulam Ahmed (9*) at the wicket when the umpire called time. India were 5 short of a tie and 6 short of a win.
India record in home Tests where they bowled the opposition out twice with Indian seamers taking the majority of wickets currently stands at 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat. In the age of Jasprit Bumrah and co., this is likely to change.