OTD | Sunil Gavaskar played infamous 36 off 174 against England in 1975 World Cup

Cricket will always look back on June 7, 1975, as a memorable day. The inaugural World Cup cricket match was played on this particular day. It will nevertheless be a painful memory for Indian cricket fans as it is still the poorest ODI innings ever. In their first innings of play, England scored 334 runs off the bowling of four opponents, including a huge contribution from Dennis Amiss. Keith Fletcher (68) and Chris Old (51*) stood by him. Sunil Gavaskar’s assumption that the goal was out of reach prevented India from responding, and they didn’t even try to chase down the total.

‘Towards the end, I was playing mechanically’ – Sunil Gavaskar on the infamous innings 

India struggled to 132 for 3 off their allotted 60 overs, humiliating the team. Gavaskar’s 36-point performance in 174 balls, with just one four, is among the slowest ODI performances ever. Indian spectators in the stadium, confused by this strategy, jeered the illustrious India opener during his whole innings. These were the circumstances, and as the innings came to an end, a few Indian fans ran onto the pitch to confront Gavaskar.

The manager of the team during the World Cup and former India captain Gulabrai Ramchand continued by saying that such a strategy was never considered, but he swiftly added that Gavaskar would neither receive a warning nor be held accountable for such a poor performance.

Later on, Srinivas Venkataraghavan was more forthright when speaking with Shekhar Gupta. “It left a very, very bad taste. He let the team down, the spectators, and the spirit of the game down. I don’t know what happened to him.”

Gavaskar did offer his thoughts on the entire incident when he discussed it in his book Sunny Days:  “There were occasions I felt like moving away from the stumps so I would be bowled. This was the only way to get away from the mental agony from which I was suffering. I couldn’t force the pace and I couldn’t get out. Towards the end, I was playing mechanically.”