We played the Australians twice during a turbulent phase in India cricket. The period from 1956 to 1960 was bizarre, in that we had as many as seven Test captains in four Test series! Polly Umrigar, who deserved a longer stint at the helm, was in charge when Australia toured in 1956-‘57. That squad comprised names like Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and a leg-spinner by the name of Richie Benaud.

Some of the Indian players who saw Benaud in the early games felt that he was no big deal. There was more than one surprised face when Miller described him as ‘a man for the future’ at a party prior to the Tests.

Benaud did not let Miller down, bagging eight wickets in the first Test at Chennai (seven of those in the first innings), and eleven in the third at Kolkata, to win both games for his team. We were outplayed at Chennai, losing by an innings, but we should not have lost at Kolkata. Despite Benaud’s six-wicket haul in the first innings, we needed only 231 to win. We were 94 for two before collapsing spectacularly.

A bowler who impressed me in the series was the paceman Patrick Crawford. A spell he bowled in the second Test at Mumbai was probably the fastest and most hostile I have ever seen. He bowled like the wind and then withdrew from the attack due to a sprained muscle. Another memory of that Test is Gulabrai Ramchand’s match-saving 106.

Miller’s man for the future was in charge when the Australians toured next in 1959-‘60. They were the overwhelming favourites as we had just returned from a catastrophic tour of England.

Not many eyebrows were raised when we lost the first Test at Delhi. We travelled by train to Kanpur for the second Test, for what was to be the city’s first-ever game on a turf wicket; all earlier games there had been played on matting. Ramchand, our newest captain, won the toss and elected to bat. We were shot out for 152. Australia started well, and were 60 for no loss at lunch on the second day. We needed some luck, and got it when Gavin Stevens drove Jasu Patel, our off-spinner, straight but uppishly. As he saw the ball flying over his head, Patel instinctively extended his right arm backwards over his left shoulder. The ball got stuck in his palm!

The wickets started tumbling after Patel changed ends. He finished with a remarkable nine for 96. By then we had worked out the wicket. As a batsman, you had to be cautious, especially in the first session, for the wicket would come across as damp and hinder stroke-play. Things would improve for the batsmen as the day progressed.

We batted a lot better in the second innings, wiping out the 67-run deficit for the loss of only one wicket. I scored 74 before succumbing to a dismissal as freakish as Stevens’ earlier in the game. Alan Davidson delivered the perfect delivery to pull, and I obliged. The ball went clean off the middle of the bat. Neil Harvey, fielding at forward short-leg, turned around and covered the back of his head. I had all but started looking at the boundary, only to realise that the ball had got stuck in the folds of Harvey’s trousers! Benaud told him not to move, and plucked the ball from between his legs.

We were able to set a target of 225. The Australians then had no clue against Patel and Polly Umrigar, a hugely underrated off-spinner himself. He kept it tight, and let the pitch do the rest. He dismissed Norman O’Neil, Barry Jarman, Ken Mackay, and Neil Harvey. Of the lot, only Jarman, I think, fell to a ball that turned. The others succumbed to straight deliveries.

The 119-run win, our first over Australia, marked Indian cricket’s resurgence after the chaos of the previous two or three seasons. While the victory was fantastic, the return journey to Mumbai by train wasn’t. A goof-up in the railway bookings meant that some of the players did not get berths. Bapu Nadkarni and I had to sleep on the floor!

Nariman Contractor represented India in 31 Tests from 1955 to 1962, and scored 1,611 runs. He was India’s highest individual scorer in the Kanpur Test of the 1959-‘60 series against Australia.