The top 5 England v India batting and bowling displays
England Cricket
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Dan Fitch /
21 July 2011 /
Could anyone possibly better these figures?
With the first test between England and India underway, Dan Fitch looks back over the rich history of the fixture to unearth the greatest performances with the bat and ball.
We're looking forward to a late summer of great cricket between England and India, as some of the world's greatest batsmen and bowlers go head-to-head.
Over the years, England v India fixtures have produced some truly memorable batting and bowling displays that the current crop of players will have to go some way to match. Here are the five best ever England v India figures for bowlers and batters.
The 5 best bowling figures in England v India tests
5. Ian Botham - 7 for 48
In 1980 at Mumbai, Ian Botham pretty much defeated India single-handedly. In the first innings he took 6 for 58 as England bowled out the home team for 242, before knocking up a score of 114 off just 144 balls with the bat.
The second innings saw Botham take the wickets of Sunil Gavaskar, Roger Binny, Gundappa Viswanath, Sandeep Patil, Yashpal Sharma, Syed Kirmani and Shivlal Yadav to record figures of 7 for 48. England won the match by 10 wickets and Botham recorded the best ever bowling figures for an entire test match between England and India, with a total of 13 wickets for 106 runs.
4. John Lever - 7 for 46
As debuts go, John Lever's first match for England in Delhi was both controversial and extremely successful. Lever took 7 for 46, which was the best ever bowling figures for an England debutant until Dominic Cork usurped it in 1995. In addition, Lever hit a half century with the bat and took another three wickets in the second innings to record match figures of 10 for 70 - another record for a debutant.
Lever's performance was controversial because of the claims that he rubbed vaseline on one side of the ball to make it swing, in what was one of the first recorded cases of ball tampering.
3. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar - 8 for 79
Having overcome a polio attack in childhood that left his right wrist withered, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar developed a unique bowling style that wreaked havoc against the England batting order when they toured India in 1972/73.
His figures of 8 for 79 were his best ever, although he was at his most potent against England in 1971 when he recorded figures of 6 for 38 at the Oval, which in 2002 was awarded as Wisden's "Best bowling performance of the century". The 72/73 series saw Chandrasekhar in consistent form with a total of 35 wickets for 662 - the best ever bowling figures over a full test series between England and India.
2. Vinoo Mankad - 8 for 55
India were inspired to their first ever test match victory over England by the bowling performance of Vinoo Mankad, who took 8 for 52 in the first innings and 4 for 53 in the second.
Later that year Mankad put in another brilliant performance against England, but this time ended up on the losing side. In the Lords test, Mankad scored 72 with the bat and then took 5 for 196 in the first innings, before knocking up 184 in the second innings.
1. Fred Trueman - 8 for 31
After the second test at Lords in 1952 when Mankad played so well, the action moved on to Old Trafford for the third. It was to be the scene of the best ever bowling figures between England and India. Having made his England debut in the first test at Headingley, Fred Trueman produced what would ultimately become his greatest ever career figures, in only his third outing.
Trueman took 8 wickets for 31 runs, which is the ninth best figures recorded by any English bowler. After a breathtaking start to his test career, Trueman would go on to establish himself as England's greatest ever fast bowler.
The 5 best batting figures in England v India tests
5. Sunil Gavaskar - 221
When the captaincy of India was stripped from Sunil Gavaskar for the tour of England in 1979, he took out his frustrations on the home bowlers. Having scored four half centuries in the first three tests, Gavaskar exploded at the Oval in the fourth, with a performance that almost prompted an unlikely victory.
India had been set a world record target of 438 to square the series and Gavaskar hit 221 towards that total, only for India to finish an agonising nine runs short with two wickets in hand, with the match declared a draw.
4. Gundappa Viswanath - 222
In the twilight of his career, Gundappa Viswanath hit his highest ever test match score during the first innings of India's match against England in Chennai in 1982.
The always elegant 'Vishy' hit 222 off 374 balls to guide India to victory, just a year before he retired from test level. In total Viswanath scored 14 test centuries, averaging 41.93.
3. Vinod Kambli - 224
After making his debut against England in the first test of their 1992/93 tour of India, Vinod Kambli caught everyone's attention in the third test at Mumbai.
In the first innings Kambli scored the biggest knock of the series with 224. Only eleven players have scored more in their maiden test century and the score remains the highest by an Indian batsman against England. Less than a month later Kambli scored his largest ever total of 227 against Zimbabwe.
2. Geoffrey Boycott - 246*
It says much about the controversial nature of Geoff Boycott's career that his greatest ever test score saw him dropped from England's next match. At his home ground of Headingley in 1967, Boycott hit an unbeaten 246, but the slow nature of his scoring caused frustration.
In total Boycott batted for 573 minutes, in which he only scored 25 runs in the first two hours and a total of 106 in the first six. Against an Indian attack weakened by injury and on a great batting service, Boycott's display annoyed the English selectors and was deemed selfish by the media. Boycott was dropped from the team for the next test.
1. Graham Gooch - 333
The highest ever batting total during an England v India test match was the 333 scored by Graham Gooch in the first innings at Lords in 1990. As if this mammoth total wasn't enough, he followed it up with a knock of 123 in the second, to record a total for the match of 456 runs.
That aggregate score of 456 remains a world record for a test match, while the 333 is the third highest score ever recorded by an English batsman and the twelfth highest score by any cricketer worldwide. The 1990 series saw Gooch score 752 runs, which is a record between England and India.
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