YESTERYEAR LEGEND

How Hazare tamed a nemesis and enthralled Adelaide

by Bharath Ramaraj • Last updated on

Vijay Hazare made his mark by cracking an imposing 316 not out - his highest first class score - for Maharashtra against Poona during the 1939-40 season © Getty

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vijay Hazare, one of India's finest batsmen, gave the gift of hope to a newly-independent country. He never stopped believing in his ability and never surrendered - virtues that become apparent while flipping through the history books to look back at his twin hundreds in Adelaide. On 26 and 27 January 1948, Hazare dug deep into his reservoirs of self belief while taking on the fearsome pace duo of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller.

But to track Hazare's journey to that feat, we begin 10 years earlier in Jath - now a part of the Sangli district in Maharashtra. After being left out of Australia's squad for the 1938 Ashes, Clarrie Grimmett opted to coach the googly to the Highness Raja of Jath and his relative Maharaja of Dewas. The Maharaja of Dewas had asked Hazare to accompany him. During his coaching stints, Grimmett took a keen interest in Hazare and saw a future Indian batsman in the 23-year-old.

The Australian cricketer would throw a string of tennis balls during rigorous training sessions, improving Hazare's defence and judgment. It was around the time that World War II broke out, and Hazare had become one of the stalwarts in India's domestic circuit. The affable cricketer made his mark by cracking an imposing 316 not out - his highest first class score - for Maharashtra against Baroda during the 1939-40 season.

Hazare, who had averaged under 20 during the previous two seasons in first-class cricket, attributed his success to Grimmett. In a letter that was later published in Ashley Mallett's biography of Grimmett, Hazare wrote: "Let me note here that this little success of mine in the cricket sphere is entirely due to your valuable instructions which I will never forget, at least in this life. I will also be thankful to you if you will in future, as in the past, kindly help me by giving necessary instructions."

Hazare soon started to notch up tall scores with an increasing regularity. In the 1943/44 Bombay Pentangular final, he compiled a mind-numbing 79.84% of the total runs in the second innings (309 out of 387) aggregated by the Rest against a star-studded, Vijay Merchant-led Hindus' set-up. In 1945/46, an Indian XI took on the Lindsay Hassett-led Australian Services XI in a three-game (first-class) series. Hazare essayed a couple of fifties. He also came face-to-face against a mighty fine all rounder with whom he would have a few intense on-field duels in the near future. The great all rounder was none other than Keith Miller himself.

The very next year, Hazare won his maiden Test cap during India's tour of England at Lord's. Alec Bedser's nagging control troubled the batting maestro in the Test series, but he showed his class and pedigree with a noteworthy unbeaten 244 against a Yorkshire pace attack that had the ever-reliable Alec Coxon alongside Ron Aspinall.

Hazare's next litmus test was a tour of Australia in 1947/48. During that tour, in the absence of Vijay Merchant (groin injury), Mushtaq Ali (family concerns) and Rusi Modi (fitness issues), the burden of spearheading the batting unit had fallen mostly on the shoulders of Hazare. The cornerstone of India's batting unit, however, failed to make an impression in the first three Tests in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. But in the fourth, at the picturesque settings of Adelaide, runs rippled through the willow of Hazare as he accrued masterful tons - 116 and 145.

Australia, who had already won two of the first three Tests, notched up a massive 674 in the first innings, with Don Bradman accumulating a double century. Despite Bradman tearing apart India's attack, there appeared a silver lining for Hazare, as he dismissed the legendary batsman for the third time on the tour. The prized scalp of Don perhaps served up as a good omen for Hazare while walking out to bat in the first dig at 69 for 3.

The mainstay of the batting line-up helped India stage a mini recovery in the company of Vinoo Mankad, but when the all rounder was castled by legspinner Colin McCool and Gul Mohammad fell cheaply, the visitors had lost half their side with only 133 on the board. Hazare needed an able ally and he found one in Dattu Phadkar. The duo added 188 precious runs for the sixth wicket to guide India to safer waters. Hazare finally fell to Ian Johnson, the off spinner, and by then India had crossed the 300-run mark. Phadkar, too, composed a hundred, but India couldn't avoid the follow-on and the tourists were made to bat again.

To make matters worse, the visitors made a disastrous start to their second innings, as they lost both Mankad and Lala Amarnath without a run on the board. Lindwall forced Mankad to edge one behind the stumps to the reliable Don Tallon, then shattered Amarnath's stumps. Such was India's frenetic start that Hazare, in a light-hearted tone, later noted "there was no time to even put on my pads".

Walking in at 0 for 2 to encounter two fast bowlers with their tails up invariably lead to Hazare facing a string of bumpers - in this case from Miller. Hazare, though, gave the fitting riposte as he hooked Miller for two consecutive boundaries.

After being smashed around by Hazare, Miller asked Bradman, the captain, for one more fielder on the on side. The legendary cricketer replied: 'Please go on bowling.' Miller finished the rest of the over looking more for line and length rather than pounding bouncers, and Hazare defended it with a straight bat. More renowned for his technique and patience, Hazare decided to play with a positive mindset when confronted with adversity and his counterattack allowed him to win the initial battle with Miller, who was soon taken out of the attack by Bradman.

Hazare taking on the fast bowler with aplomb was a microcosm of the way the middle order batsman played his cricket. Sujit Mukherjee, the famous Indian cricket writer, observed via Gideon Haigh's book, Uncertain Corridors: Writings on Modern Cricket, that when Hazare batted his innings had "no beginning and no end", as "whether his score was 2 or 20 or 200, he was assessing the bowling with the same exacting concern that characterised his every moment at the crease."

Hazare also had to negate the threat of Lindwall. With a sixteen-paced approach, the great Australian fast bowler seemed to glide rather than steam into the crease. At the end of a rhythmic run-up, his left shoulder whirled into the batsman and as the right-arm rotated through after a jump, he propelled deliveries at a scorching pace. Lindwall also had a skiddy and vicious bumper, and could mix it up with the swinging yorker.

The battle between Lindwall and Hazare turned out to be a fascinating one. Hazare, who played with a somewhat unique stance in the sense that he would tuck his bat between the pads, had a watertight defence and zen-masterly concentration prowess. He was able to navigate the threat of Lindwall with his defence and temperament, and brought up his hundred with a trademark cover drive off the fast bowler that rocketed past Neil Harvey. In between, Hazare also took a toll of Australia's spin duo, Johnson and McCool, with sublime drives.

Eventually, after a little more than five hours at the crease, Lindwall castled Hazare with a yorker. By then, with useful support from Hemu Adhikari (51), Hazare had piloted the visitors to a respectable 271 for 7. Once Hazare was removed, the famous pair of Lindwall and Miller ran through the lower order to snuff India out for 277. The significance of Hazare's gallant innings in the second essay can be encapsulated by the fact that five of the Indian players were dismissed without opening their accounts; all of them being sent back to the hut by Lindwall.

Even though India succumbed to an innings and 16-run defeat in the fourth Test of the series, Hazare was praised for his resolute knock. Richard Whitington, the former South Australian middle-order batsman and later a prominent journalist of his time, observed: "The (Archie) Jackson-like grace of Hazare fired the imagination of the Australian public." The innings was "a great display of determined batting," noted Adelaide's Advertiser.

"I had been very impressed by the soundness of Hazare and the correctness of his stroke production. I have no wish to be dogmatic on the point at this stage. I merely want to call attention to Hazare's skill and his right to be classed as a great player," Bradman wrote in his autobiography, Farewell to Cricket, in 1950.

Although Miller and Hazare had some engrossing duels on the cricket pitch, the pair had mutual respect for each other. When Miller passed away in October 2004, Hazare was quick to pay tribute. Miller, on his part, once observed: "Vijay Hazare, one of the most gentlemanly cricket giants of all time, has had his fair share of bumpers hurled at his head in his heyday. And how brilliantly and viciously he hammered this none-too-easy delivery. He was a cricketing giant by any yardstick."

However, the line of praise that Hazare cherished the most was from his mentor Grimmett. The great legspinner, who invited Hazare to dinner at his home in Dundula after the Indian batsman had cracked his second hundred of the Test, said: "Vijay, a toast. You have made me a proud man today."

© Cricbuzz

TAGS