Vijay Anaparthi

The Pongal festival is coming. Everyone knows the iconic Boxing Day Test and just a few days ago we saw its grandeur again. Until 1988 India had a tradition of hosting the Pongal Test.

Let's talk about the Pongal Test matches in this thread.

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First, a bit about the Pongal festival. Coming from a Telugu family, I can say it's one of the biggest festivals for us. It's a 3 day celebration, each day filled with different things, family & friends gatherings and of course great food. It's a festival that brings people together. It usually celebrated around Jan 13-15 Dates (sometimes dates will change).

Chennai was the host for Pongal Test, first time India played a Test match in Chennai on these dates was in 1960. India took on Richie Benaud's Australia. Before this match also for some years there were Test matches that happened in January in Chennai.

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The late 1950s was a time when there was a game of musical chairs with the Indian captaincy, at one point of time 5 different captains lead India in 6 consecutive matches. Amidst all this, Gulabrai Ramchand was appointed captain for the first time during the 1959/60 AUS series, which was also his final series as a player.

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Match was mostly one sided, Richie Benaud ran through the Indian batting lineup and apart from Budhi Kundheran, no Indian batter even reached 50 runs. Australia cruised to victory.

In 1961, Pakistan toured India during Pongal. India drew the Test, thanks to centuries from Polly Umrigar and Chandu Borde, and an important 80 from captain Nari Contractor.

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But it was in 1962 that India made history. India won their first ever Test series win against England during Pongal Test. Thanks to a brilliant century by 21 year old Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi along with Salim Durani's 10 wicket haul, India conquered the English. 

Durani became the 5th Indian to take a 10 wicket haul in a Test, following the footsteps of Mankad, Subhash Gupte, Patel and Gulam Ahmed. This was also the debut Test for spin maestro Errapalli Prasanna.

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In 1963, no Pongal Test but in 1964 England toured again. Budhi Kundheran smashed a mammoth 192, he entered Indian cricket record books by scoring highest score by Indian Wicket keeper, a record that stayed unbroken for nearly 50 years until MS Dhoni’s 224 🧤

This is the same Test saw Bapu Nadkarni bowl 21 consecutive maiden overs, ending an innings with an incredible 32 overs for just 5 runs with 27 maidens, talk about accuracy.

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In the 1967 Pongal Test, another Wicket keeper Farook Engineer almost hit a century before lunch against the fiery West Indies. The legendary spin trio (Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra) dominated the bowling, but the match ended in a draw.

For the next 5 years, no Test match was played during Pongal. When England toured again in 1973, the famous same spin trio claimed 19 wickets in the match, helping India secure a hard fought victory. This was also Ajit Wadekar's final Test win as captain.

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The next Pongal Test came during the iconic 1974/75 West Indies series. It was a special one as Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge made their debuts in Bengaluru, it was the very first Test match in Chinnaswamy. The 4th Test of the series played during Pongal in Chennai. 

Gundappa Vishwanath brilliant solo effort in the first innings and Anshuman supported in the 2nd. With Bedi, Chandra and Prasanna taking 19 wickets in the match. This was the first time India won back to back matches against the West Indies

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1977 Pongal Test belonged to England. In the 1978/79 series, India played 6 Tests against the West Indies and won only 1, with the rest ending in draws. That sole victory came in the 1978 Pongal Test, where the same man, the wristy Gundappa Vishwanath assured India's win with his brilliant century. 

From 1980 to 1987, there were 3 Pongal Tests played, but the final one took place in 1988 and it was one of the most memorable for several reasons.

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Narendra Hirwani, the debutant, tore through the West Indies.batting lineup, took 16 wickets in the match and creating a world record for the most wickets by a debutant. India won with ease and it was also the debut Test for WV Raman, Ajay Sharma and Phil Simmons. Ravi Shastri captained India in this match, the only time he led India in Test cricket.

I am ending the thread here, That's all for the forgotten tradition of India's Pongal Test match.

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