Exactly 44-years-ago, on 24th June 1974, Indian cricket had a miserable day when India was bundled out for just 42 runs, their lowest total in a Test innings.
It was the day four of the second Test of three-match Test series between the hosts England and the visitors India at Lord’s (London). India came in this Test match after losing the first Test of the series by 113 runs at Manchester.
After deciding to bat first, England managed to put a big total of 629 runs on the board, thanks to the three centuries (Dennis Amiss 188, Mike Denness 118 and Tony Grieg 106) and one nervous-ninety (John Edrich 96) knocks.
India was bowled out for 302 runs in their first innings and they were forced to follow-on as they were 327 runs behind at the end of the first innings fights. In the first innings, opener Farokh Engineer (86) and Gundappa Viswanath (52) scored half-centuries while another opener Sunil Gavaskar (49) and middle-order batsman Eknath Solkar (43) were dismissed on 40’s.
After spending the rest day on 23rd June, India came out to bat on the day four with 2/0 in the second innings. However, it was the dismal day for Indian cricket history that happened in the very short period of time.
At the end of the 17th over, the Indian team was bundled out for just 42 runs and lost the second Test by an innings and 285 runs which is India’s second largest Test defeat by an innings.
Apart from Eknath Solkar (18*), none of the Indian batsmen reached the double-digit mark in that innings. While opener Farokh Engineer and no.10 batsman Bishan Singh Bedi scored the ducks, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar was absent hurt.
English pacers Geoff Arnold and Chris Old totally destroyed India’s second innings by bagging four and five wickets respectively. In that innings, Arnold had a figure of 8-1-19-4 while Old ended with a figure of 8-3-21-5. Another pacer Mike Hendrick was the only other bowler to bowl in that innings who had a bowling figure of 1-0-2-0.
With that victory, England secured the three-match Test series by leading the series with a 2-0 margin at the end of the second Test.
