West Indies broke fresh ground with a visit to India, where their batting strength astonished their hosts, and victory in the fourth match of the series enabled them to win the Test rubber. The other four encounters, like eight more of the tour, failed to produce a definite result, and West Indies, who won six first-class matches, suffered only one defeat. The series was dominated by the bat, with Everton Weekes excelling for West Indies, and Walcott, Stollmeyer, Gomez, Rae and Christiani all hitting maiden Test centuries. Hazare, Adhikari, Mushtaq Ali and Phadkar were all seen to advantage, but rarely did India’s batting equal that of their opponents in technique or attractiveness.
Tests: India 0 West Indies 1 Drawn 4
1952-53 West Indies
India went down courtesy of defeat in the second Test in Barbados – their only loss on a tour which produced just one win, against Jamaica – in front of massive crowds. The outstanding players were Gupte, a little leg-break and googly bowler, and Umrigar, a hard-hitting batsman. Gupte took 50 first-class wickets on the tour, only seven less than the number obtained by the rest of the bowlers put together. Umrigar, with plenty of power behind all his strokes, averaged over 62 both in Tests and in all matches. The batting of Weekes again stood above everything else. He scored 207 in the first match, 161 in the third, and 109 in the fifth, averaging 102 in the five Tests. Walcott also shone, but until the last Test, when he scored 237 in the first innings, Worrell was out of touch.
Tests: West Indies 1 India 0 Drawn 4
1958-59 India
West Indies bounced back from a poor tour of England in 1957 with vengeance, with Garry Sobers leading the way with four centuries in successive matches, three of them Tests, backed by the pace of Roy Gilchrist and Wes Hall. Gilchrist, who liberally used beamers and bouncers, was sent home at the end of the Indian leg of the trip for indiscipline. India’s cause was scarcely helped by repeated captaincy problems. The team had four leaders during the series, and not once did the eleven men chosen actually take the field. Nevertheless, Gilchrist and Hall established their superiority over the Indian batsmen from the start of the series and never relaxed their grip.
Tests: India 0 West Indies 3 Drawn 2
1961-62 West Indies
India travelled with optimism after a good series against England, but were completely blown away by a side at the height of its powers. The arrangements for the tour lacked common sense. India were rushed into action and never settled – “The Indians took the field under a hot Trinidad sun within twelve hours of arrival from wintry London and New York. A crop of pulled muscles and stomach disorders was inevitable, and throughout the tour the players’ nostrils were filled with the odours of drugs and liniments” bemoaned the Almanack, and the life-threatening injury to Nari Contractor overshadowed the second half of the trip. They were outclassed throughout, and their one win on tour came in the final match in St Kitts.
Tests: West Indies 5 India 0
1966-67 India
West Indies were clearly not the force they had been on the previous tours, but with Sobers to the fore, they were still too good for India. Kanhai and Clive Lloyd did well with the bat, the former more than once benefiting from India’s dreadful catching, but Hall was injured early on and Griffith looked a shadow of his former fearsome self. Apart from Borde, who scored two centuries and altogether 346 runs in six innings, the Indian batting was too patchy and inconsistent. As in every series he has so far played, Chandrasekhar was the foremost Indian bowler
Tests: India 0 West Indies 2 Drawn 1
1970-71 West Indies
India’s best tour to date was also West Indies’ fourth straight series defeat, and their second at home. The decisive Test was in Trinidad where Venkat took 9 for 149 in the match, eclipsing Jack Noreiga who returned 9 for 95 in India’s first innings. Sobers was in supreme form with 597 runs at 74.62 while Charlie Davis, of Trinidad, playing one Test and two innings less, also totalled over 500 runs and finished at the top of the averages (132.25). But Sunil Gavaskar, who missed the first Test, amassed 774 runs at an average of 154.80. He had to sit out all three first-class games in Jamaica and yet he finished with 1,169 runs (av. 97.41). Sardesai, far from assured of a regular Test place at the start of the tour, also performed admirably in scoring 642 runs.
Tests: West Indies 0 India 1 Drawn 4
1974-75
For the first time, every Test match of a series in India produced a definite result and the fifth Test started against the dramatic background of India having levelled the rubber after being overwhelmed in the first two Tests. Despite India’s gallant rally, West Indies deserved to win the final Test and the series, as there was never any question of their allround superiority. Clive Lloyd led with the bat, with more than 1000 runs on the Indian leg of tour alone (West Indies went on to Pakistan) and Viv Richards signaled his arrival with a match-winning 192 in the second Test. Andy Roberts, making his first tour, was the outstanding bowler. India’s hopes were dented by internal politics and Gavaskar’s absence for three matches. With Wadekar having quit, Bedi and Engineer were the favourites to captain, but the selectors opted for Mansur Ali Khan on flimsy grounds and he struggled. The batting depended on Gundappa Viswanath and Anshuman Gaekwad, but they were left with too much ground to make up.
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India vs West Indies Cricket History:
1975-76 West Indies
As at the end of the tour, the Indian team trudged along the tarmac towards their home-bound aeroplane at Kingston’s Norman Manley Airport, they resembled Napoleon’s troops on the retreat from Moscow. They lost a hard-fought series 2-1, but their one win broke records after they scored 406 for 4 at Port-of-Spain, a after which Clive Lloyd vowed never to rely on spinners again. He was as good as his word, and in the series decider at Kingston, India were battered into submission. Injuries and illness meant that the entire squad was on the field at one time or another, and Bishan Bedi infamously declared India’s second innings on 97 for 5 in protest at sustained short-pitched bowling as West Indies wrapped up the series.
Tests: West Indies 2 India 1 Drawn 1
1978-79 India
It was a young and inexperienced West Indies team who toured India, but to their credit they lost only one of the six Tests and drew the remainder. The majority of their best players had opted to play World Series Cricket for Kerry Packer and co in Australia and the tour said much about the West Indies’ strength in depth and India’s gradual decline from power – despite the emergence of Kapil Dev. Indeed it was Kapil who led India to their series-winning victory in the fourth Test. After Norbert Phillip and Vanburn Holder had reduced India to 84 for 6, it was left to the teenaged Kapil – handicapped by a high fever – to score 26 of the 41 runs coming in at No. 8, as India edged home by three wickets.
Tests: West Indies 0 India 1 Drawn 5
1982-83 West Indies
After a trying series against Pakistan, India’s long-standing captain Sunil Gavaskar was replaced by their dynamic all-rounder Kapil Dev – but it didn’t make much difference in a series which lacked ferocity. After losing the thrilling first Test, where West Indies reached the required 172 in the last over of the match, India batted resiliently to earn a draw in the second. But the West Indies stormed back in the fourth with a crushing win, thanks to bowler-friendly conditions and a lively pitch. Only Mohinder Amarnath stood out for India’s batsmen, hooking Roberts, Holding and Garner for sixes despite a blow on the mouth which caused his temporary retirement in the second innings. He stood alone, though, and West Indies blew them away by 10 wickets.
Tests: West Indies 2 India 0 Drawn 3
ODIs: West Indies 2 India 1
1983-84 India
Despite an arduous itinerary the West Indies won the six-Test series three-nil, with little challenge to their authority. For the second consecutive series, Clive Lloyd was West Indies’ main run getter, averaging 82.66 in the Tests; it was a tribute to his character that, despite his 39 years and a nagging back problem, he buckled down to play one long innings after another. And by the end of the series, India had played 29 consecutive Tests without a victory, their longest barren stretch. Malcolm Marshall almost single-handedly (92 runs and eight wickets) won the first Test for the West Indies, after Gordon Greenidge’s brilliant 194. And despite Kapil Dev’s 9 for 83 in the third Test, Michael Holding demolished the Indians with a vicious and match-winning spell of bowling to take the visitors 2-0 up in the series. India initially faired better in the fifth Test as the West Indies stumbled to 88 for 5 before Lloyd hit a magnificent unbeaten 161 and Marshall (6 for 37) yet again routed India for 90 to hand the West Indies a compelling series victory.
Tests: West Indies 3 India 0 Drawn 3
ODIs: West Indies 5 India 0
1987-88 India
“The Test matches, regrettably, were received as enthusiastically as sandwiches filled with the leftovers of the Christmas turkey,” so wrote Wisden in the account of this tour, such was the disastrous planning by the Indian board. After a thrilling first Test at Delhi, in which Viv Richards clobbered a run-a-ball hundred, the second at Nagpur was bizarrely cancelled at the 11th hour, in order to fit in two further ODIs in addition to the five already scheduled, and moved it to Mumbai. After draws in the second and third Tests, India stormed back in the fourth thanks to Narendra Hirwani, making an astonishing debut, who took eight wickets in both innings to match Bob Massie’s feat of taking sixteen wickets on his début, against England at Lord’s in 1972. Hirwani, a bespectacled 19-year-old, was indebted to the wicketkeeper Kiran More who stumped six batsmen in the match, five of them in the second innings, to lead India to a crushing 255-run win to level the series.
Tests: West Indies 1 India 1 Drawn 2
ODIs: West Indies 6 India 1
1988-89 West Indies
Even without playing to their full potential, West Indies were vastly superior to India in both the Test matches and the one-day internationals. After the first Test was washed out, the West Indies asserted their authority in the second, aided by poor Indian fielding. Ian Bishop bowled with admirable accuracy given his inexperience and, though the West Indies only gained a 56-run first-innings lead, Marshall blew India away in the second innings with 5 for 60. The most disappointing aspect of the series was India’s inability to take advantage of a turning pitch in the third Test, at Port-of-Spain. Their failure and their rout underlined the decline of the art of spin bowling in a country where it abounded only a few years earlier. Of the three Indian spinners, Arshad Ayub was the most successful. On what was a spinner’s pitch, Marshall again frightened India with 11 wickets in the match. It was Bishop and Courtney Walsh to the fore in the fourth and final Test at Jamaica, with Walsh following up first innings 6 for 62 with another four in the second. Walsh had another role to play earlier when Viv Richards, chuntering and fuming at his dismissal, provoked the partisan crowd into throwing bottles at the accused wicketkeeper More. It was left to Walsh and, later, Richards to plead for peace.
Tests: West Indies 3 India 0 Drawn 1
ODIs: West Indies 5 India 0
India vs West Indies 2011:
1994-95 India
An outbreak of pneumonic plague in the western state of Gujarat raised doubts about whether this tour would take place at all. Eventually, the West Indians arrived a week late – and they left the preservation of their reputation very late too. Having gone one down in the First Test at Bombay and drawn at Nagpur, they waited until the last day of the tour to hit back and level the series. West Indies had not lost a Test series since their 1-0 defeat in New Zealand in March 1980; the turnaround at Mohali near Chandigarh, was a great escape for Courtney Walsh and his party on a tour when little went right. Without Richie Richardson (exhaustion) and Curtly Ambrose (shoulder), they lacked menace. India swept to a their tenth successive home Test victory at Bombay, when Javagal Srinath (4 for 48) helped dismiss the tourists 96 runs short. It was a match which swing both ways for four days, and only when Prabhakar dismissed Phil Simmons and Brian Lara in the first over did India finally scent victory. Carl Hooper and Jimmy Adams’ brave rescue act in the second Test appeared to give the West Indies confidence and, on the final day in the third Test, they hit back to level the series and remain unbeaten since March 1980. A blistering 91 from Brian Lara set India 358 to win, but Kenny Benjamin blew them away for 114 with five wickets.
Tests: West Indies 1 India 1 Drawn 1
ODIs: India 4 West Indies 1
1996-97 West Indies
Both teams had just lost their preceding series – West Indies in Australia, India in South Africa – so both had plenty to play for on India’s first tour of the Caribbean for eight years. In the event, they were thoroughly frustrated by the weather. The first Test was spoiled by rain on the last day and the final two Tests were so reduced that not even two innings could be completed. The two outstanding players in both teams – Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara – failed to live up to their star statuses. Both produced measured performances – Tendulkar hit 92 at Barbados and Lara a patient 103 – but more was expected of them. The pitches were lifeless and dull until both captains pleaded for one with a bit of spice – and got more than they bargained for at Barbados. Set just 120 to win, India capitulated for 81 with Ian Bishop, Curtly Ambrose and Franklyn Rose providing to give the West Indies a rather hollow series-victory.
Tests: West Indies 1 India 0 Drawn 4
ODIs: West Indies 3 India 1
2001-02 West Indies
India had realistic expectations that their eighth tour of the Caribbean would allow them to break their wretched overseas record. They possessed a well-balanced team: Sachin Tendulkar remained the premier batsman of the day, supported by Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Although they took a lead with a hard-fought victory in the second Test, they didn’t take into account either their own antipathy towards the faster, bouncier pitches they would encounter in Barbados and Jamaica, or West Indies’ lingering resilience at home. The home side’s limited bowling attack demolished India in the third at Barbados to level the series, and after a draw in the fourth the West Indies batsmen gained a 212-run first-innings lead in the fifth Test to set-up a comprehensive 155-run win, and a 2-1 series victory. Again, though, the two star batsmen – Tendulkar and Lara – failed to shine. Tendulkar’s 117 in the second Test was more grafting than domineering; his 79 in the first and 86 in the last were more authentic. In between, he had three ducks (fourth, second and first balls) and an eight. Lara, hindered by immobility in his elbow, never gave a glimpse of the breathtaking form he had displayed in Sri Lanka.
Tests: West Indies 2 India 1 Drawn 2
ODIs: India 2 West Indies 1
2002-03 India
The West Indies decline in the 1990s accelerated into an alarming freefall and they were fortunate to only lose the series 2-0. They remained stuck in a vicious circle; they were diffident and lacklustre on the field; their batsmen threw away starts and their bowlers never believed they could get wickets. Following-on in the first Test at Mumbai, they capitulated to Harbhajan Singh (7 for 48) after Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid both hit blistering hundreds. Singh was at it again in the second at Chennai, taking 5 for 30 to reduce West Indies to a paltry 167. They never recovered; despite a gutsy 78 from Ramnaresh Sarwan in their second innings, they fell to a convincing eight-wicket defeat. However, the two massive losses sparked something in Carl Hooper’s men who, in the third Test at Kolkata, were a team rejuvenated. As Wisden noted, “the batsmen applied themselves, the bowlers bent their backs, the fielders threw themselves around, and actually believed it mattered.” Three batsmen made hundreds, leading the visitors to 497 – their highest score of the series by some margin. Though India soon matched it in their second innings, and in doing so closing the game out, it at least demonstrated the West Indies had the talent, if not the sustained determination, to compete on the subcontinent.
Tests: India 2 West Indies 0 Drawn 1
ODIs: West Indies 4 India 3
India vs West Indies 2011 Cricket series will start from 4th of June with only T20 International and then West Indies will host 5 ODIs and 3 Test Matches against West Indies after first T20. So Enjoy India vs West Indies 2011 Series Live and Enjoy.
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