Three Former Ranji Cricketers recount a 1964 First Division thriller at the Marina
The Hindu Rangarajan's Jolly Rovers beat a start studded SBI by one run after three suicidal run outs at the end
End of October 1964, Jolly Rovers, run by The Hindu’s S Rangarajan, and a start studded SBI played out a thriller at the Marina Ground in front of thousands of spectators. There was a test match feel about the match as the two top ranked teams that fought each other many a time that decade vying for the prestigious Palayampatti crown came head to head yet another time on Sunday October 25.
84 year old SVS Mani (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/07/svs-mani-cricketer-selector-coach.html) was in the form of his life. He had played for South Zone schools in the late 1950s alongside TVS’ S Ram(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/06/tvs-ram-s-cricketer.html), a new ball swing bowler. Earlier in the year, the then 24 year old had scored a Ranji hundred against Andhra and followed it up a couple of months later with another century this time in the Gopalan Trophy match against a top Ceylon bowling attack comprising of Fredricks and Chanmugham. He recounts to this writer the pains of losing a thriller at Marina “In that phase, this was the most eagerly fought battle. Unfortunately for us (SBI), the crowd always rooted for the opposition when we played and it was the same at Marina that day in 1964.”
Mani was the most outstanding TN fielder that decade and for the Pongal Test of that year, he was in the India Reserves as a substitute fielder when Engineer was fighting an injury. In the first division matches for SBI, he was the one manning the deep field and was always under pressure with the huge crowd just a few yards behind him. In another match against Jolly Rovers that decade, he picked up two brilliant catches to send back legendary Salim Durrani, who passed earlier this week and N Ram.
“VV Kumar was once again outstanding that day as he spun a web around the Jolly Rovers’ batting line up.”
VVK and Wilmot each picked up three wickets as Jolly Rovers was bundled for just 76 that stunned the huge crowd into silence.
K Balaji (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-blossoming-cricket-career-was-cut.html), who went on to play for TN in the 1970s, was not yet 10 then and went for the match along with his uncle Rangarajan. He recalls a rare occurrence from that match “My uncle was a most unlikely top scorer for JR batting at No.11!!”
SBI's Chase - The crowd back on its feet
Within minutes of the start of SBI’ innings, the crowd was back on its feet as V Rajaram dealt a double blow in the very first over of the innings. The Hindu in its report, a copy of which is available with this writer, was all praise for new ball bowler Rajaram “After being bowled out for 76runs, Jolly Rovers struck two quick blows when Rajaram in the opening over captured the wickets of D Padmanabhan and Test Cricketer AG Milkha Singh with the scoreboard remaining blank.”
A solid partnership for the fourth wicket brought SBI right back into the match. Mani remembers his partnership with Habib Ahmed “We were on the back foot after the double blows in the first over. I was in confident form that year and with Habib striking it big, we believed we would beat our arch rivals. But the pressure was always on us as the crowd was against us and clearly they were waiting for a collapse.”
Habib's stroke-filled innings
The Hindu wrote in its Monday sports page report “The (early) reverse did not seem to perturb the tall and lithe Habib Ahmed, as he was in an aggressive mood as he hit a six and a four. He drove and pulled elegantly and it looked as though SBI would pull through.”
The Hindu also commended the role played by Habib’s batting partner “SVS Mani, who joined Habib after the fall of Shajahan, was unruffled by the position.”
Mani told this writer that he enjoyed batting in tense situations. It was his dogged innings that complimented Habib's stroke play and led SBI's fight back that afternoon. He says the anti SBI sentiment in the crowd made it even more challenging in the chase as they were battling both the opposition bowlers as well as the booing crowd.
He recalls another match when VV Kumar knocked down the stumps when the batsman strolled out for a walk (K Srikkanth did that in 1981 on his Test debut in Bombay!!! - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/10/abhinav-mukund-bizarre-dismissal.html). The crowd was so upset that they ran on to the ground and uprooted the stumps in protest and the match had to be abandoned.
Habib and Mani took the score to 40 but the fall of Habib and the subsequent fall of three more wickets within 13 runs put Jolly Rovers back in the fight, wrote The Hindu.
Looking back, Balaji says he enjoyed watching the match as a young boy but it was quite a tense affair when Habib was batting “The situation did not look very good for JR when Habib Ahmed was batting. And then when the wickets fell (in a hurry) the pressure got to the SBI batsmen.”
VV Kumar - a surprise with the bat
It was VVK, not known much for his batting, with the bat, after his three wicket haul earlier, who led the late order recovery as SBI closed in on the chase. The Hindu wrote that VV Kumar and Bhimraj took the score to 70 with SBI needing just seven to win with three wickets in hand.
Mani was sitting far away in the Pavilion almost biting his nails and just could not bear to watch the match that was heading for a thriller. He recounts those final moments of tragedy for SBI that day “The two brought us really close and with every run that was posted we thought we would scrape through. But like it so often happens in cricket, stupidity struck the cricketing minds. Three suicidal run outs and we lost by just one run. The entire team was distraught as at 40 for 3 everyone in our dressing room (Marina Pavilion) had fancied our chances.”
“It was one of the many thrillers that was played out that decade between SBI and Jolly Rovers. My long time team mate and one of my best cricketing friends the lanky off spinner Chandru (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/r-chandrasekaran-sbi-globe-trotter.html) - he passed away last year - who played a stellar role in many a SBI win that decade along with VV would have been thrilled to recall this match and he would be delighted to read this way up in the heaven”, said Mani.
Rajaram's bowling wins him a TN cap
While the three suicidal run outs at the end resulted in the one run win, it was V Rajaram’s extraordinary piece of bowling that was instrumental in Jolly Rovers’ triumph that day. VV Kumar recounts the impact of such a performance and how it immediately won him a place in the TN Ranji team “The tall Rajaram impressed with his swing bowling. Balu Alaganan, who watched the match, had no hesitation in picking him for TN’s next Ranji match against Kerala at Tellichery. And he responded brilliantly with a seven wicket haul in the match including five in the first innings that helped us bowl out Kerala for just 69. Rajaram had a short but useful stint for TN in the National Tournament.”
It was gripping towards the end. . There were no more nails left for most in the crowd. They had enjoyed munching sundal and peanuts (and biting their finger nails) and had just watched one of the most enthralling first division matches. They disbursed some of them to the beach discussing the highlights of the match and how the result would have been different had it not been for those three run outs at the end. Most of them though, much to Mani's fury, were delighted with SBI’s loss.
A couple of years later, Jolly Rovers was handed over to KS Narayanan (and later N Sankar) - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/jolly-rovers-n-sankar-75.html- and the club has gone on to become one of the most successful private cricket clubs in the country. On this Sunday in October 1964, Marina had played host to yet another cricketing thriller.