How Mumbai always dominated matches at the CCI

Bombay's best days in the Ranji Trophy tournament were at the Brabourne Stadium.

How the Mumbai Ranji team was invincibleu00a0inu00a0theiru00a0domestic battles at the Brabourne stadium

The victorious Mumbai team with the Ranji Trophy in 1969. PIC COURTESY: CCI The Home of Cricket.

Bombay's best days in the Ranji Trophy tournament were at the Brabourne Stadium. They reached the full meridian of their glory in the seasons 1958 to 1973 when they won the championship for the 15th successive time, surpassing the achievements of such star teams as New South Wales, Surrey and Yorkshire. By an unfortunate coincidence they lost supremacy the very year they ceased playing at the Stadium.

A match between Bombay and Rajasthan had invariably provided cricket of rare vintage, good batting and bowling and show of spirit among the players. In 1963 Bapu Nadkarni was to rattle up the double centuries to whichu00a0 he was becoming familiar and there were two other centurions, Ramakant Desai who made 107 and G S Ramchand an unbeaten 102. In the first innings Rajasthan collapsed to Charlie Stayers, the West Indies pace bowler, who was on a coaching stint in Western India.

Two years later, they fared marginally better. Bombay made capital of the decision to put them in to bat and though the middle order did not capitalise on this, the tail-enders, led by Sharad Diwadkar and supported by Ashok Mankad and Arun Varde, helped them raise a total of 526 which suited Nadkarni's purpose.

Rajasthan could make only 108 but when they followed on but they were a different side altogether, for numbers three, four and five sent the Bombay bowlers on a leather hunt. Vijay Manjrekar made 118 with the composure of an established batsman, Hanumant Singh lent grace and solidity to the middle with 102, but both of them could only watch in admiration as Durraniu00a0 sent the Bombay attack on a merry dance while rattling up 118 at number three, a position which he had graced from time to time.

That final was a 'splendiferous' display of batting. But there were others which were just as spectacular and exciting, even if the big names were not as catching or numerous. There was always some good-humoured needling and banter, for many of the Rajasthan players lived in Bombay and played at the CCI in the local league.

There was one game in the late 60s played specially at Udaipur, for it was believed the matting wicket would be Bombay's 'Waterloo'. But in the event it was not Kailash Gattani who was the main threat but Ramakant Desai who destroyed any chance Rajasthan may have had of winning the game. This was also the time when Rajasthan took an enthusiast who was believed to be a 'panvati' (one who brought bad luck) as their guest to parade him in the Bombay dressing room. But the plan apparently misfired.

Laced with history
It would appear as if the history of the CCI is the history of Bombay cricket. Indeed it was so since Bombay figured in all the last rounds of the Ranji Trophy even in the years when it did not dominate it. But in the process it was possible to study the strength of teams from other parts of the land.

The bowler who won his place with a one-match spell was Umesh Kulkarni. In the Duleep Trophy final, of 1966-67, his bowling impressed Tiger Pataudi who chose him for the team which toured Australia under his captaincy. Umesh did precious little but there was one Australian critic, Lindsay Hassett, who saw some promise in him and felt that he had not been properly utilised. In the Duleep Trophy match Pataudi went on to score 200 but when he had hardly scored any runs he skied Umesh and Engineer, with all the time in the world, dropped the catch.

The 60s were Bombay cricket's 'wonder years' and the CCI shared much of the pomp, pride, power and glory of Bombay's supremacy in the game. Dilip Sardesai, a bulwark of strength to Bombay, advised younger members of the team to that it was easier to wear a India cap than be chosen to play for Bombay.

This is no exaggeration for it is reflected in many of the scores, especially against the strong bowling outfits which had tested the strength of visiting teams. Take for instance Bombay's score in the 1961-62 Ranji final. It was 539 against Rajasthan, with Ajit Wadekar scoring 235 and GS Ramchand 100, while Sharad Diwadkar took five for 58 to give the opposition no chance at all.

The next season at Jaipur, Bombay were again up in the 500s as Nadkarni joined in the festivities with 219 and even Ramakant Desai (107) had his share of the pleasures with Ramchand (102). Charlie Stayers 6 for 36 did the damage for Bombay.

And so too 1970 when Bombay rattled up 520 for eight declared with Wadekar scoring 91 and Sardesai 154 to Solkar's 105 to show signs of the larger contributions they were to make in the Caribbean and England. They collected these runs against Prasanna and Chandra. Hence, where there is talk of batsmen's wickets and bowler's pitches, there is need to study the quality of the batting and the bowling and the ability to get runs when needed. In the final when Mysore collapsed in the first innings, they staged a grand recovery in the second. Gundappa Viswanath got 95 in his most graceful manner while Brijesh Patel scored an unbeaten 105 to inspire John Woodcock of The Times some years later to call him the 'Doug Walters of Indian cricket'.

Extracted from an article by the late KN Prabhu written in the book CCI u00e2u0080u0094 The Home of Cricket published by The Marine Sports