1971: at The Oval – India won by 4 wickets

It was the historic Test match in Indian cricket history as it was India’s first Test victory against England on the English soil. It was the third and final Test of the three-match Test series at The Oval and it was also the series decider game as the series was running by 0-0.

English captain Ray Illingworth decided to bat first after winning the toss. Opener John Jameson (82), wicketkeeper-batsman Alan Knott (90) and lower middle-order Richard Hutton (81) helped the English team to score 355 runs. Left-arm Indian bowler Eknath Solkar (3/28) got three wickets in that innings.

Dilip Sardesai (54), Farokh Engineer (59), skipper Ajit Wadekar (48) and Eknath Solkar (44) fought hard that Indian managed to score 284 runs before getting all-out. English skipper Ray Illingworth got five wickets as his bowling figure was 34.3-12-70-5. At the end of the first innings fights, India was 71 runs behind.

In the second innings, the hosts batting line-up was totally destroyed by the Indian leggie Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, who picked up six wickets as his bowling figure was 6/38, as England was bundled out for just 101 runs. Only the opener Brian Luckhurst (33) reached the 20-run mark in that innings.

Chasing down the 173-run target, India lost six wickets but finally reached the target and wrote the history. Skipper Ajit Wadekar (45) scored the highest runs while Sardesai (40) also reached the 40-run mark. The left-arm English spinner Derek Underwood (3/72) fought hard but couldn’t save the English team at the end.

It was India’s first Test victory on the English soil as they won the game by four wickets. With this victory, India also won the first ever Test series on the English soil by the 0-1 margin.