OTD| Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 against England brought India very close to historic win in 1979

4 September 1979 is a historical day in the history of Team India’s Test cricket as Sunil Gavaskar hit 221 against England at the Oval. It was the fourth and last match of the series and India were trailing by 1-0 after three matches. The Men in Blue were looking for a win but England skipper Mike Brearley won the toss and opted to bat first.

While batting first, the home team got bundled out for 305 runs in their first innings in 124.5 overs. Graham Gooch was the highest scorer with 79 runs while Peter Willey was the other half-centurion. For India, both Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Kapil Dev took three wickets each. Along with them, both Bishan Bedi and Karsan Ghavri took two wickets each.

India scored 429/8 in 150.5 overs in their second innings while chasing 438 runs

Then, in India’s first innings, they got bundled out for just 202 runs in 79.3 overs. Gundappa Viswanath was the lone star as he scored 62 runs. Ian Botham grabbed a four-fer while both Bob Willis and Mike Hendrick took three wickets each. So, England came out to bat in their second innings with a handy lead of 103 runs. Then, they declared their innings after batting for 116.5 overs. They scored 334 runs for eight wickets and set a 438-run target for Venkataraghavan and his men. 

For England, Geoff Boycott scored 125 runs while wicketkeeper, David Bairstow scored 59 runs. Meanwhile, for India, Ghavri took three wickets and Kapil Dev managed two along with both Venkataraghavan and Bedi’s one scalp each. So, it was a huge target for the Men in Blue and another loss was in sight for the team. But Sunil Gavaskar came up with a terrific knock of 221 runs as England failed to bundle out India. They batted for 150.5 overs and scored 429 runs for eight wickets. India were just nine runs short and the game ended in a draw. Hence, India were very close to a historical victory due to Gavaskar’s heroics and he also won the Player of the Match award.