Prasanna's impassioned appeal drilled reality into us

Winning the maiden Ranji Trophy is one of the most rewarding moments of my career. At that time, I never thought we would be celebrating such events 50 years down the line or so. You never think along those lines but it's surreal to be honest. But somewhere deep inside there is a sense of sadness, too, that three of our team-mates and the manager of the team are no longer with us today. I am missing (B) Vijayakrishna, (VS) Vijaya Kumar, K Lakshman and our manager C Nagaraj. We were all like a family and it would have been nice to have them amongst us today as we commemorate the golden moment.

Personally, I had a good tournament but obviously my knock in the semifinal against Bombay stands out. Not because it was my highest individual score that season but given the significance of the game -- it was Bombay, they had won 15 Ranji titles in a row and was easily the best team of that time -- it was that much more special. Of course I had already made my India debut but those days for us Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy meant a lot. We of course had the best spin attack with Prasanna and Chandra in our ranks ably supported by Vijayakrishna, so all we had to do was to put on a big total.  

It wasn't a great start as Vijayakumar got out first ball. And there was a big shout for LBW against me; those days I used to bat at No. 3. I thought it would have missed the leg because (Abdul) Ismail would swing the ball big. But many thought it was out, the umpire didn't agree, and who walks for an lbw appeal? Brijesh (Patel) and I had a big partnership (166) after that. He got a hundred (106) and I got a big one as well (162). Given our partnership, we were 281/3 at one stage, we should have had a bigger total on the board but we thought the 385 we posted was good enough because we had Prasanna and Chandra. Bombay had a formidable batting line-up with Sunil (Gavaskar), Ajit (Wadekar), (Ramnath) Parkar, (Eknath) Solkar, (Ashok) Mankad, (Milind) Rege... It wasn't easy but a couple of breakthroughs turned the match around. The way Prasanna got Sunil... I would say it's one of the best balls I have ever seen in my career. And then Sudhakar (Rao) running out Wadekar was another crucial moment. We took a handy lead, and qualified for the final based on first-innings lead.

Needless to say, the entire team was over the moon after beating Bombay. We were absolutely elated and still nursing that victory hangover even as we reached Jaipur for the final against Jaipur. That's when Prasanna felt the need to step in and drill some reality back into us. "Boys, I know that victory over Bombay was unbelievable. But there is still a final to be played. Don't let complacency set in because this is a rare opportunity that has come our way after all these years."

You could sense his concern. You could feel his passion. It's that impassioned appeal that got us off our high horse. And mind you, Rajasthan wasn't a side to be taken lightly. They had some great players like Hanumanth Singh, a fine batter and an astute captain. They had a genius in Salim Durani. Both Brijesh and I didn't score much but Vijay Kumar (66) and Vijayakrishna (71) played crucial knocks as did (AV) Jayaprakash (56). You see, cricket is a great leveller. Prasanna weaved a few more magical spells. The dream came true, the memories are enduring.

(As told to Madhu Jawali)