Fifty four years ago to this day, Chandu Sarwate and Shute Banerjee
immortalised themselves with one of those historical quirks that has
never been witnessed before or since. The scene was the Oval in London
where the touring Indians were up against the might of Surrey. Batting
first India were quickly in trouble as Alec Bedser removed both Vijay
Hazare and Rusi Modi for ducks. Bedser was still some six weeks away
from making his Test debut and establishing an international
reputation, which he did immediately with eleven wicket hauls in his
first two Tests.
Surrey's only bowler with Test experience, Alf Gover, did not bowl
much but the Indians found Bedser more than a handful. Although Vijay
Merchant (53) and Gul Mahomed (89) were involved in a retrieving
stand, Bedser had picked up his fifth wicket when the last man,
Banerjee, joined No.10, Sarwate with the score at 205/9. As Sarwate
recalls, the Surrey captain was already informing the groundsman what
roller he would require at the end of the innings. He was destined to
wait a great deal longer.
"It seemed as though we couldn't do anything wrong. Whatever strokes
we made were all along the ground and very well placed", said Sarwate
as he and Banerjee tamed the Surrey bowlers with a thrilling display
of attacking batsmanship. When Parker castled Banerjee to terminate
the innings some three hours and ten minutes later, the two had pieced
together a humungous 249 for the last wicket. It is still the only
instance in first class cricket when No.s 10 & 11 have scored
centuries. Buoyed by the sight of the scoreboard reading a healthy
454, the Indians went out on the field and bowled out Surrey for a
miserable 135.
Following on, the home team did slightly better in the second innings
as they ran up a score of 338 and just avoided an innings defeat. The
irrepressible Sarwate, who bowled a mixture of off and leg breaks,
snapped up 5-54 in the second essay and India eventually won by the
thumping margin of nine wickets. In the three Tests that followed,
Banerjee failed to make an appearance while Sarwate played only in the
second Test at Manchester, his Test debut, where he made 0 & 2 and
bowled seven wicketless overs. But it hardly mattered for they had
already done enough on that single day in May to command a place in
cricketing folklore.