Forty years to the day, on October 29, 1983, Sunil Gavaskar entered folklore for equaling Don Bradman’s 29th century. Not just the record-equalling feat, but also the way West Indies’ brutally wandered hundred bowlers left everyone gasping.
Such were his powers of concentration that he did not even realize that he had reached the milestone. In his mind, he thought he had entered the 80s. “I thought I had gone to 82 from 78,” Gavaskar would say at the time. It was left to non-striker Dilip Vengsarkar to shout, “Damn, it’s your 29th!”.
The moment is captured on YouTube. Gavaskar shuffles to elegantly hit a full ball from Malcolm Marshall to mid on and has just turned for the second run when the ball goes over the boundary. And Vengsarkar crosses the pitch to jolt him out of his reverie, to remind him of the moment’s importance, waves to him and a bewildered Gavaskar looks around, even as the crowd goes wild. It was his 12th ton against West Indies. Even before he could lift his bat, the West Indians were running to congratulate – wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon, kingpin Viv Richards and captain Clive Lloyd. He then raises his bat, presumably turning toward the dressing room to raise his left hand in recognition.
Richards would later say, “Every time you watch him you learn something. Just the other day he hit Kotla and I found out he doesn’t even look at the scoreboard. Such are his powers of concentration… It was a proud moment on the field. It was a fitting blow to reach such a milestone. It’s a shame we had to be on the other side!” Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was at the Kotla that day and congratulated Gavaskar.
This Test series was part of Gavaskar’s folklore and also for the West Indies who crushed India after the World Cup defeat by winning three Tests and five ODIs. Malcolm Marshall’s lifter knocked Gavaskar’s bat out of his hands in the first Test in Kanpur, creating a dark swell for now, but it will ultimately be talked about by his fans for years as the moment that sparked his thrilling counter-attacks that followed in a row. .
How he roused himself in the next Test in Delhi, hooking and pulling Marshall and Michael Holding – the fifty came in 37 balls and the 100, Bradman’s equal 29th, in 94 balls. A Test later, he found himself in Ahmedabad at the new Motera Stadium, which has now been converted into the world’s largest stadium, where he hit Vijay Merchant’s shout-winning 90. In the next two Tests, Marshall took him out three times for 12,3,0 and Holding took him once for 20. He batted at No.4 in the last match at Chennai, but went in at 0 for 2 and smashed a double hundred, his highest test score of 236.
Years later, in an interaction with the ABP group, he spoke about this tone of Bradman’s and also about his batting philosophy.
“The prize I put on my wicket was always a 100. I always wanted a century. that’s the minimum I wanted to get. Obviously, this was impossible, even Sir Donald Bradman couldn’t do it in every innings. So my whole idea was to do sessions with bats. I didn’t look at the scoreboard because every batsman has his own way of setting targets.
“I had no idea [about the Bradman-equaling hundred] until (Dilip) Vengsarkar came and told me.”
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Years later, at an event at the CCI club, Gavaskar’s teammate and friend in Mumbai, Sishir Hattangadi, would tell a story about Gavaskar and the West Indian pacers.
“It was at Ravi Shastri’s house where during some charity tournament…all the fast bowlers had come and had a few beers at Ravi’s house. Sunny walks in his pajama-kurta, a little late. The moment he walked through that door, all four (bowlers), over six feet, stood up saying “hello master, how are you”. I mean (it’s the kind of) respect and reverence that the big four bowlers (had for Gavaskar) and they were all great – (Michael) Holding, (Joel) Garner, (Malcolm) Marshall, (Andy) Roberts.”