A to Z of Old Trafford

Abbas At 20 years and 131 days Oxford lad Abbas Ali Baig became Indiarsquos youngest Indian Test centurion In the 1959 Test his second innings 112 placed him in the company of Lala Amarnath Hanumant Singh as debut centurions against EnglandBedser Playing only in his second Test Alec Bedser claimed 11 wickets in the 1946 drawn Test while opening the bowling with Englandrsquos Bodyline series bowler Bill VoceCapitulated Thatrsquos was India did in the 1952 Test where they were dismissed for 58 and 82 on one day to lose by an innings and 207 runs their first defeat in ManchesterDoshi The recently departed Dilip Doshi claimed six of the 10 England wickets to fall in the 1982 Test A report in the Wisden Cricket Monthly described him as ldquoguilefulrdquo and ldquodevotedrdquo while he toiled away for a Test best 6102England Hosts England have never been beaten by India at Old Trafford across nine Tests Will the tenth India vs England Test there witness a change in fortunes for the visitorsFarokh Former India wicketkeeperbatsman Farokh Engineer made Manchester his home and the stand named after him is an apt honour for the lsquoLancastrianrsquo Apart from his two Tests in Old Trafford Engineer will cherish the Roses games he played there against YorkshireGavaskar In 1983 when he was asked to write about his 30 Test hundreds till then Sunil Gavaskar said the one he scored in the 1974 Test was the best Considering the green conditions it certainly wasHutton The then England captain Len Hutton led from the front in the 1952 Test with a first innings century that helped England pile up 3479 declared His bowlers did the rest for a massive winIIingworth Another England captain to lead by example at Old Trafford against India In the 1971 Test Ray Illingworth top scored with 107 at No 7 The Test ended up being drawnJohn Sunil Gavaskar wrote in Sunny Days that England fast bowler John Price bowled him the fastest over hersquod faced It eventuated in his first innings dismissal caught behind by Alan Knott for a fighting 57 in 1971Kumble Indiarsquos most successful spin bowler Anil Kumble began his Test journey in the 1990 Old Trafford Test He sent back Allan Lamb John Morris and Angus Fraser in his first innings and could well have dismissed Graham Gooch when the England captain was on 82 and 97Last Indiarsquos last wicket pair of SW Sohoni and DD Hindlekar held on to a draw warding off the English attack whose team was on the field for the entire day India faced a 278run target and finished the Test with 1529 in 1946M The M factor played a big role for India in the second innings of the 1936 Openers Vijay Merchant and Mushtaq Ali scored imperious hundredsNarendra Hirwani claimed his best figures 4174 in an overseas Test in 1990 However he was at the receiving end of some Allan Lamb who slammed two sixes in Englandrsquos second innings en route his 109Old How old is the Old Trafford cricket ground in terms of Test cricket A good 141 years It is Englandrsquos second lsquosenior mostrsquo ground four years younger to The Oval and 10 days older to LordrsquosPrabhakar While Sachin Tendulkar was churning out his Test century No 1 in the 1990 Test Manoj Prabhakar 67 not out too was battling away to prevent England from winning their second Test in the seriesQuit A few months before his scintillating hundred in the 1982 Test Sandeep Patil was all set to quit cricket Polly Umrigar the chairman of selectors then tore the resignation letter and Patil on June 27 tore apart the England bowling for an unbeaten 129Ravindra Only allrounder Ravindra Jadeja in the current playing squad has played a Test at Old Trafford And the 2014 Test was not a fruitful one for the current senior pro mdash a solitary wicket and zero and four with the batSmiths Two Smiths have scored hundreds for England against India at Old Trafford mdash future captain MJK lsquoMikersquo Smith in 1959 and Robin Smith in 1990Trueman In his debut series Fred Trueman destroyed India with 831 in a first innings score of 58 in the 1952 Test Itrsquos the best innings analysis by an England fastbowler in Manchester till date The Cricketer magazine hailed Trueman who in their words ldquoshattered the Indiansrsquo spirits and defences beyond repairrdquoUmrigar The pundits reckoned he had a weakness against the English pace bowling But Polly Umrigar proved them wrong with a second innings hundred in 1959 Before he walked out to bat Umrigarrsquos highest Test score in England was 39 in 13 inningsVinoo Four unproductive innings at this ground 0 5 4 and 6 in the 1946 and 1952 Tests notwithstanding Vinoo Mankad claimed five wickets in Englandrsquos first innings in 1946 His fellow fifertaker was Lala AmarnathWillis England captain Bob Willis had to bear the brunt of Sandeep Patilrsquos Symonds bat Patilrsquos sequence of boundaries in Willisrsquos recordequalling 24run over was 4 4 4 4 4 4XFactor It could well be Englandrsquos comeback paceman Jofra Archer Hersquos keen as mustard and will be hell bent on dishing out some spicy stuffYearn India will continue to yearn for their first series win England since 2007 A loss or draw in the ongoing Old Trafford Test will mean another opportunity lostZeroes Six Indian players got out for ducks in their first innings of the 2014 Test mdash M Vijay Pujara Kohli Jadeja Bhuvneshwar and Pankaj Singh in a total score of 152middayrsquos deputy editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper