B’day Special: India’s first century was born today, who used to bowl with the wrong foot

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new Delhi: It has been 88 years since he made his Test debut in Indian cricket and in these nearly 9 decades of cricket, Team India has given all the cricketers who have played their sting in the whole world. Even though Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar (Sachin Tendulkar) is considered to be the ‘God of Cricket’ and holds a unique record for scoring 100 centuries in international cricket in his name.

But do you know which cricketer made the first international century for India? These cricketers were Lala Amarnath. Lala, who celebrated his birthday on September 11, was also one of the few bowlers in the world who bowled with the wrong foot. Let’s say some similar things about him on the 109th birth anniversary of Lala of Indian cricket.

This was the first test match on Indian soil
Born on 11 September 1911 in Kapurthala, Punjab, Lala Amarnath’s real name was Nanik Amarnath Bhardwaj. He made his career debut on 15 December 1933 at the Gymkhana ground in Bombay (now Mumbai) from the first Test match of the country’s first home Test series against England. This was just the second Test match of the Indian cricket team. In the first Test match, England had beaten England by 158 runs at the historic ground of Lord’s in 1932. After this, India was going to play Test matches for the first time on its soil.

Lala set a record for century in debut test
Lala Amarnath started his Test career with this Test match. Lala, who was included in the Indian Test team for the first time, scored just 38 runs in the first innings. However, his score was also the biggest innings in Team India’s total score of 219 runs. In reply, England hit 438 runs in their first innings. The badly backward Indian team lost their 2 wickets for just 21 runs in the second innings as well.

Lala Amarnath started batting from here and hit 118 runs. This was the first century of any player in Test cricket for India. Also, he also became the first Indian batsman to score a century in a debut test. He also added 186 runs for the third wicket with 67-run captain CK Nayudu, but the whole team still managed to score 258 runs. The English team achieved the target of 40 runs by losing just 1 wicket.

Female spectators showered rains on Lala
Even though Team India lost the Test match by 9 wickets, but Lala’s innings was such that everyone in the audience gallery became his fan. It was a big thing for the audience that in the British-dominated game, an Indian batsman had hit a century by flipping his bowlers. This was the reason that when Lala was returning to the pavilion, the women sitting in the audience had thrown out their worn gold-silver jewelery as gifts.

Lala later wrote about this moment in his autobiography, ‘When I reached the team hotel in the evening, hundreds of people were standing to meet me. It took me 15 minutes to reach the hotel lobby. Thousands of greeting messages and flowers were woven inside my room. Apart from this, my bed was filled with more than a dozen Rolex watches and many other gifts, which were sent in exchange for my innings.

Used to bowl right foot, hit wicket to Bradman
Lala Amarnath was amazing not only as a batsman but also as a bowler. His specialty was that while bowling at medium pace with the right hand, he kept the right foot forward in the crease, whereas the left leg of any normal bowler is always forward. It is called ‘Rong Foot Bowlers’ in the language of cricket, which only one in 100 is found. Lala Amarnath also surprised a great batsman like Don Bradman, surprised by his strange action.

Bradman became the first and last hit wicket in his career. This was done by Lala on the Indian team’s first tour of Australia in 1948. Bradman mentioned his strange bowling style and his hit wicket on him several times later in his life.

Controversies also arose, first Indian to return from middle tour
Lala Amarnath was closely associated with controversies many times during and after his career. He was the first Indian cricketer who was sent back from a foreign tour after a dispute with the captain. In fact, during the 1935 tour of England, he had a fight with the captain Maharaja of Vijayanagar aka Viji for selection in the Final XI.

On this Vizji sent him back. However, Lala was considered close to Maharaja Patiala, who had a tremendous hold on Indian cricket at that time and for this reason he was given the responsibility of captaining Team India after the Second World War. By then, 10 Golden Years of Lala’s career had been ruined.

Azad Indian team and country’s first Test series winning captain
The captaincy of the Indian cricket team, elected after independence in 1947, was handed over to Lala Amarnath, that is, he was the first Test captain of the independent Indian team. Apart from this, Lala was also captaining the Indian cricket team which won its first Test series against Pakistan in 1952.

Both these things have also recorded Lala’s name in the history of Test cricket in such a way that no one can erase it even if they want to. Lala had scored 878 runs in 24 Test matches during his career and also took 45 wickets. His best innings was 118 runs in batting, while 5 wickets in 96 balls was his best performance.

Amarnath family’s sting in Indian cricket history
After Lala Amarnath, his son also played cricket for India. Surinder Amarnath was able to play only a few Test matches, but Mohinder Amarnath is counted among the legendary all-rounders in Indian cricket history. Mohinder is most talked about for his contribution to India’s team’s unique feat of winning the match by winning the title and bowling 400+ runs in the West Indies in the semi-finals and finals of the World Cup-1983 in India. There is also a record of being dismissed twice in cricket in the name of Mohinder. Once he was out ‘Handled the Ball’, while the second time he was given out under ‘Obstruction the Field’ rule.

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