Four hundred and six for four

West Indies declared at 271 for six on the fourth day at Port of Spain in April 1976, 402 ahead. India were 134 for one at the close and 406 for four when the match ended the next afternoon. The card’s result line reads India won by 6 wickets, and its bowling table for that innings has three spinners with 105 overs and two wickets between them.

The first three innings

Viv Richards made 177 in West Indies’ 359, with Bhagwath Chandrasekhar taking six for 120 and Bishan Bedi four for 73. India replied with 228, Michael Holding six for 65. West Indies batted again and Alvin Kallicharran made 103 not out, and at 271 for six, on the fourth afternoon, Lloyd declared. The target was 403.

Full scorecard: West Indies v India, 3rd Test, Port of Spain, 7–12 April 1976 →

The attack

The card lists seven bowlers for India’s second innings. Bernard Julien, 13 overs for 52. Holding, 21 for 82. Lloyd himself, six for 22. Then Albert Padmore, 47 overs, ten maidens, 98 runs, no wicket, on debut. Imtiaz Ali, 17 overs for 52, no wicket, also on debut. Raphick Jumadeen, 41 overs, thirteen maidens, 70 runs, two wickets. Roy Fredericks, two overs.

Padmore and Ali were the two debutants on the card. Between them and Jumadeen the spin bowled 105 of the 147 overs, and the two wickets it took were both Jumadeen’s. Holding, who had taken six in the first innings, bowled 21 of the 147 and took none.

Four hundred and six

Sunil Gavaskar made 102 and was caught behind off Jumadeen at 177. Anshuman Gaekwad 28. Mohinder Amarnath 85, in 440 minutes, run out at 392. Gundappa Viswanath 112, in 220 minutes, run out at 336. Brijesh Patel 49 not out, and Madan Lal 1 not out beside him at the end. The two run-outs were the only wickets the fielding side took without a bowler, and half the wickets in the innings.

India had needed 269 on the last day with nine wickets in hand. They made them in the day, at 2.76 an over across the innings, and the card’s 147 overs are the whole of the fifth day and part of the fourth. Extras were 29, and the umpires were Compton Vyfhuis and Ralph Gosein.

What the chase was

Four hundred and six was the highest total ever made to win a Test, passing the 404 for three Australia had made at Headingley in 1948. The card does not say so. It gives a target, a total and a margin, and the record is the difference between the target and every other target that had been chased before.

Nine days later, at Kingston, West Indies picked four seam bowlers and one spinner, and India’s second innings closed with five men absent hurt. The Port of Spain card is the one before that, and the reason for it.

What made it unrepeatable

Records are passed, and this one was. What does not recur is a captain declaring with three spinners, two of them on debut, against a side that had made 228 in the first innings, and watching the declaration lose the match by six wickets. The card’s series line reads level, one all, and the next card on the tour is a different kind of cricket.

What the card holds

A declaration at 271 for six that set 403. Three spinners, 105 overs, two wickets. Two hundreds and an 85 that took 440 minutes. Two run-outs where the bowlers could not manage a dismissal. And a total of 406 for four, which is the number that turned a series and, on the evidence of the next card, a decade.

••••••

No. 15 in Unrepeatable, a series of 22.

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