OTD 1975 Sunil Gavaskar’s infamous 36* off 174 in the opener of inaugural World Cup

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is one of the finest batters to have represented India and has numerous records to his name. He showed a fearless approach while facing the legendary ‘Four Horsemen’ of the West Indies as he batted aggressively against them wearing a hat in the 70s and 80s.

Apart from that, he also became the first Test cricketer to amass over 10,000 runs. Meanwhile, Gavaskar made a dismal record in his illustrious career by playing a humiliatingly slow innings which happened to be on this very day in 1975.

When an aggressive Sunil Gavaskar became extra defensive

The forgettable knock in discussion happens to be from a 1975 World Cup encounter between England and India that was played at the ‘Mecca’ of Cricket Lord’s. In those days, India were just mere participants in World Cups and it was only after their historic triumph in 1983 that they went on to become strong contenders in the editions that followed.

England skipper Mike Denness won the toss and elected to bat. James Johnson and Dennis Amiss add 54 runs for the opening stand before the latter was dismissed by Mohinder Amarnath. Amiss and Fletcher (68) then added 176 runs for the second wicket.

Dennis Amiss demoralized the Indian bowlers with his amazing strokeplay and brought up a spectacular century. He eventually fell for 137 as England posted a mammoth total of 334/4 from their 60 overs.

With the total well beyond their reach, all India could do was somehow go down fighting and the onus was on Sunil to provide a good start. Instead, he tried to delay the inevitable by resorting to defensive tactics against the English bowlers. In fact, the batters that followed his opening partner Eknath Solkar tried their level best to keep India’s hopes alive, but they all departed after getting starts.

Seeing wickets tumble at the other end, the Mumbai cricketer held on to one end firmly like a wall and made the opposition batters toil hard single-handedly without throwing away his wicket. Neither of the English bowlers succeeded in getting him out and he remain unbeaten on 36 runs from 174 deliveries as India finished at 132/3 from their 60 overs.

Gavaskar’s knock included only a solitary boundary at an unimpressive strike rate of 20.68. This remains the lowest point of the batting legend’s career to-date. After this humiliating loss of 202 runs against the hosts, India went on to face an early exit from the tournament on the back of a few more underwhelming performances that followed.