Kapil’s crazy day out in Kent

In a piece for the summer 2019 edition of The Nightwatchman, I revisited Kapil’s iconic 175* against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells.

It was published in the Wisden blog here.  Image credit to Jan Traylen (who is interviewed in the piece).

Excerpts:

One of the greatest innings of modern times began 18 minutes past 11 o’clock with no television camera to record its brilliance. A bareheaded Kapil Dev, in a full-sleeve sweater and droopy moustache, “squinted up at the sun”, wrote R Mohan in Sportstar, as he walked in to bat. In his hands a Slazenger V12. On his mind thoughts of survival. A few minutes on, Yashpal Sharma’s dismissal left India at 17 for 5. Walking in at No.7, Roger Binny remembers Kapil saying: “We’ve got 53 overs to go.”

*

Kapil smote his final 75 runs off 38 balls. The first one-day hundred by an Indian had rapidly turned into the highest individual score in one-dayers. Once he crossed 171, umpire Barry Meyer walked up to Kapil and informed him of the record. There was “polite applause” from the crowd when the feat was announced on the tannoy. Kapil and Syed Kirmani added 126 for the ninth wicket – a record that would stand for over a quarter of a century. No Indian would cross 175 in an ODI for 16 years. Kapil walked off the field to a stirring ovation and waiting for him at the boundary edge was Gavaskar – the other superstar in the Indian team – ready to hand him a glass of water. Thirty-six years on, Gavaskar maintained that he has yet to see a greater one-day innings.