A Win in Kiwiland after 33 years
But is it really such a great historical achievement?
While I have no hesitation in congratulating the M S Dhoni and his men for this victory I do not think it is any great historical achievement as is made out in the media which is blaring headlines that we have won there after 30+ years.
In the seventies and early eighties, New Zealand was not considered as a stong team as it is considered now. Before the admission of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh into Test cricket, New Zealand used to be the team considered the weakest amongst the world test teams.
That despite having some great cricketers like Sir Richard Hadley, Glenn Turner, Martin Crowe, John Wright, Mark Greatbatch, Geoff Lawson (thanks Loshan for pointing out the error), Jereme Coney (again thanks to Loshan for reminding this great’s name) and Evan Chatfield in their ranks.
Despite being considered as the weakest team amongst the test playing nations, New Zealand always fought hard. Especially in matches against Australia they gave their very best.
I remember their 1981 ODI match in the World Series Cup against Australia in which to avoid a tie (not defeat) Greg Chappell stooped to the level of asking his youngest brother Trevor Chappell to bowl the last delivery underarm. Still it remained that they were lowly ranked as a test playing nation.
Thus, it comes as a surprise to me that India has not won a test match in New Zealand in 33 years.
The last win came in 1976 in Auckland. Going through the scorecard at www.cricinfo.com I noticed some interesting similarities between the current match and the 1976 one.
1. In both the matches New Zealand batted first
2. In both matches India chased down a small score (less than 100) in the last innings.
3. In both matches, in the Indian second innings, the opening batsman taking strike scored the majority of the runs for victory and remained not out. (Sunil Gavaskar with 35 in 1976 and Gautam Gambir with 30 in 2009)
4. In both matches Little masters scored a century in the first innings. In 1976, it was Sunil Gavaskar with One hundred and Six-teen and in 2009, it was Sachin Tendulkar with one hundred and Six-ty.
5. In both matches it was a off-spinner who bundled out the Kiwis. It was Erapally Prasanna with 8 for 76 in 1976 and Harbhajan with 6 for 63 in 2009.
I noticed that it was one of those rare matches in which both the great off-spinners of India Prasanna and Venkat played and Bishen Bedi didn’t. In that match the two off-spinners together took 12 wickets, with Prasanna taking 8 wickets in the second innings.
As if it is a repeat of history, in the current win, Harbhajan Singh our off-spinner took 6 wickets.
While in this win Sachin Tendulkar scored 160 in the first innings of this test , in the 1976 match, the original little master Sunil Gavaskar scored 116.
The 1976 match was probably one of the few matches in which Sunil Gavaskar scored a hundred and G R Viswanath failed and still India won the match. 
This looked odd to me. Hence I wanted to do some number crunching to see the statistics of India – New Zealand matches in the past 33 years and compare the same with the matches played by India against other teams. The following interesting statistics emerged.
Thus, while this win did come after many years, it is not that great history because we have not played often enough against NewZealand to day that we have not won often enough the said team. We seem to be playing more often against Australia and England or for that matter even Pakistan (with whom we have a off on touring relationship) than against New Zealand.
In fact, amongst the test nations that are playing test cricket 32 years back the least we have played is against New Zealand.
In the olden days atleast we used to make it a point to tour New Zealand whenever we toured Australia, combining the tour schedules. Now, since BCCI has become more monied and since travel is not that great a hassle, we seem to have deliberately ignored touring the Kiwis regularly. It might be because the BCCI thinks that a series against Australia, England or Pakistan gives more revenues than a tour to New Zealand.
This thinking is also proved by the fact that we have not been playing many matches even against Sri Lanka which is nearer home – we have played just 29 tests in 26 years.
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Firstly I should thank God that there is one more person who thought the same way I did.
This “Win after so-long years” funda is also one of those marketing strategies by BCCI. As your stats points out we play least number of matches against each team. A cricket life spanning 33 years against an opponent consisting of just 30-odd matches is very low ratio.
I do agree that the current Indian team is the best ever which can be rated second while first being the 83 World Cup team. May be the team spirit being the sole reason for the success.
You could have also pointed out after how long (career years) Sunil Gavaskar scored 116 and Sachin 160. Because that carries a lot of weightage.
Whoever is short in height but tall in talent are called as Little Masters. Your “Original Little Master” was something I don’t agree with.
well written.. as long as u play against a team very frequently, u get more chances to win against them.
e.g- aus v eng, s.a v aus and recently ind v aus.
some of the great players nz have ever produced are Ian Smith(w.k), Jeremy Coney and Jeff Crowe.
Geoff Lawson actually played for Australia. Pl correct it.
In the olden days atleast we used to make it a point to tour New Zealand whenever we toured Australia, combining the tour schedules. Now, since BCCI has become more monied and since travel is not that great a hassle, we seem to have deliberately ignored touring the Kiwis regularly. It might be because the BCCI thinks that a series against Australia, England or Pakistan gives more revenues than a tour to New Zealand.//
well said.
This thinking is also proved by the fact that we have not been playing many matches even against Sri Lanka which is nearer home – we have played just 29 tests in 26 years..//
yeah.. we have the same feeling..
@Loshan,
Thanks for pointing out. I have corrected the error with credits to you in the post
.
Coming to the players omitted, I should not have overlooked Jerermy Coney; he was one of my favorites and an amazing batsman. I should also mentioned Lance Cairns the big hitter with no parallel.
I however, do not think Jeffe Crowe is of the same caliber as his brother Martin Crowe. For the same reason I didn’t also include Geoff Howarth, who played till he walked with bat in one hand and the walking stick in the other
@Vijay,
Though Sachin has played for 20 long years and has achieved a lot, one cannot write down Sunny’s performances. He was probably the neatest and most technically correct batsman that India has ever produced in my opinion. You can differ from that!
I should probably call like the Englishmen – Little Master – I (Gavaskar) and Little Master – III (Sachin Tendulkar). I will give the title of Little Master II to Gundappa Viswanath – my all time favorite for sheer artistry.
Dear Satya
There appears some bias. The victory is sweet not only for the fact that it comes after 33 years but it is one of 32 victories abroad. We have far too little abroad.
Your bias carried from school times : Gavaskar Vs Vishwanath is also exhibited. If at all Indian bowlers had some total to back them, it was provided by the solid Gavaskar who scored most of his runs in foreign countries.
Though we would have played much less against Kiwis, fact remains that during many a series we were wiped out and after 1976-77, though better teams toured, we were unable to win in Newzealand. In 1976 they had the prolific Glenn Turner who had scored two centuries in the inaugural WC and the redoubtable Richard Hadlee who sliced through us in the third test. Incidentally, the first test which we won was captained by Sunny (though Bedi was the tour captain). Surinder, Kirmani and Vengsarkar made their debuts – with the aggressive stylish Surinder scoring a ton on debut. He got a raw deal later is another moot point.
Did you know that we played two One dayers in that tour which were infact were 8 ball each 35 over matches.
Those were the days when we studied in Hindu High School and could get some detail from ‘The Hindu’ paper on a later date or from knowledgeable Triplicane elders.
With regards – S Sampathkumar
PS: I share with my group some of my writings and have mailed you my article on this win as also IPL and host of other cricketing issues
Sampath,
I remember that famous victory in 1976. The angle of my story is not to say this victory is not nice.
The point I tried to make is that we have not played regularly enough against NZL to say that it has come after 33 years.
Yes, we have won few tests only overseas. That is because in many of those tests Gavaskar and Tendulkar scored their centuries
Had Viswanath, Dravid and Ganguly scored as many hundreds India would have won more matches abroad. 
(Just pulling your leg since you referred our school arguments of Sunny V. Vishy).
The actual reason for our lesser number of victories abroad is not lack of talent but lack of exposure to technology in the olden days. The current generation has greater access to technology and coaching and also the money power to go and practice in foreign land. How often have we heard Indian players taking part in the local leagues just before start of a test series so that they can get themselves acclimatised? Prior to this series I think Dravid, Laxman and few others got that opportunity.
But I feel that this is too much hyped. If you talk about this victory is great then I will have to counter about the nature of the current NZL team which is very young and inexperienced.
[...] The victory at Hamilton was in the front page of all the newspapers and news channels also devoted great measure. Some would be muttering ‘why so much on a test win‘. [...]
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