Indian cricket team during 1960s did get some significant successes that include some wonderful individual performances like the world record opening partnership of 413 runs between Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad against New Zealand in 1955. The world record stood tall till the first half of this year, when the South African opening pair, Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie broke it. Mankad-Roy's partnership stood tall for as long as 53 years and the new record of 415 runs was made by Smith-McKenzie, in March, 2008, against Bangladesh. Some other brilliant performance in this decade was Subhash Gupte's leg spin magic against the West Indies in West Indies in 1952-53 and also the Jasu Patel's stand-out performance against Richie Benaud's Australians in 1958-59.While making the world record opening partnership of 413 runs for India, the great batsmen, Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy batted throughout the entire first day of the Test against New Zealand, which itself was a record. The partnership was really a valuable one for India, as it helped India clinch a huge an innings and 109-run victory in the fifth and final Test against New Zealand at home in 1955. They surpassed the previous world record of 359 runs, made by England's Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook against South Africa in 1948-49. They showed a lot of grit and determination and batted out some hostile spells of bowling from the famous New Zealand bowlers like Cave and Hayes. Mankad eventually got out for 231 runs, that was the highest individual score by an Indian till then and the score of Roy was 173 runs. Roy also scored another two centuries in the same series and became one of the star players for India in its second home series win.
The Indian team presented some more glorious and spectacular moments for the Indian cricket enthusiasts in the 1960s, as they established themselves a team to reckon with on sub continental soil with consistent performances at home. The team first became successful to win a Test series against the England team for the first time in its history in 1961-62. It was considered as a sweet revenge, as the England team did white-washed the Indian team in its previous tour of England, in 1959. India won the four match series in 1961-62 by 1-0, by winning the last match, after drawing the first three.
For more, visit the link below:
