Kolkata: Ahead of Sunday’s make-or-mar match between India and West Indies at Eden Gardens in the T20 World Cup, it would be remiss not to point out that Kapil Dev, Mohammed Azharuddin, VVS Laxman, even Sachin Tendulkar have bittersweet memories of this iconic amphitheatre. For, in knockout matches real or virtual, Eden has served India delight and disappointment in nearly equal proportions. And disgrace once.
First the good news: India have not lost a T20I at Eden since the first one it hosted. That was on October 29, 2011 when Manoj Tiwari was a middle-order batter still some years from being a middle-rung minister in the West Bengal government. Crucial blows from Steven Finn (3/22) and Kevin Pietersen’s 39-ball 53 ensured England comfortably chased down a score of 120/9 with six wickets and eight balls to spare.
Since then, India’s T20I record here, including four wins against West Indies, has been: seven played, seven won.
India also lost the first One-day International at Eden, a little over 39 years ago. That was to Pakistan, more specifically to Salim Malik. Never has the phrase “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” been as appropriate as it was on February 18, 1987. International cricket’s shortest version can sometimes make ODIs feel like T20Is on barbiturates but as world champions then it was a format India had an insatiable appetite for.
Even in T20s, a 36-ball 72 would be noteworthy. Few did, talk that is, as afternoon bled into dusk and Malik tore to ribbons an attack comprising Kapil, Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri. Krishnamachari Srikanth (it would be a while before he added another ‘k’ to his name) had made a 103-ball 123 but the first ODI century at Eden remains in the shadow of a blitz that fetched a two-wicket win.
Kapil took a split hattrick against Sri Lanka in an ODI here in 1991 – the first at Eden – but in terms of impact it would be second, or third, to spells in the 1993 Hero Cup semi-final and final. The semi-final is remembered for being Eden’s first match under lights, seven run-outs – Azharuddin flinging his bat in frustration at being involved in those of Pravin Amre and Kapil – and of course that last over where Sachin Tendulkar choked Brian Macmillan. Cue, paper torches adding an orange tinge to a cauldron bathed in bright white light.
“I thought any bowler would anyway give five runs and said, ‘if this works, it’s great and if it doesn’t, I will take the brunt. I was facing it anyway’,” Azharuddin said later. Collar raised, shoulders pushed back, Azharuddin had continued his love affair with Eden galumphing to 90 in a team score of 195 defining swag before we knew what that word meant.
Having trapped Darryl Cullinan lbw, Kapil finished the night with figures of 8-0-31-1. Nothing special. But the scorecard won’t show how the first-change bowler had kept things tight to take the match to the final over. In the final, he removed Richie Richardson and Keith Arthurton, the former was deceived by a slower delivery, which after Tendulkar had removed Brian Lara, led to Anil Kumble (6/12) creating the perfect storm. Kapil finished on 10-3-18-2 and didn’t play an ODI at Eden after that.
Two years after an epochal Test innings of 281, Laxman was at Eden in November 2003 for the TVS Cup final. The usually safe slip fielder dropped four catches, two off Ricky Ponting and one each from Matthew Hayden and Michael Bevan. Laxman did scalp Ponting two balls after dropping him again but by then the Australia skipper had steadied the innings with an 80-run stand with Damien Martyn. India lost by 37 runs.
In the blazing heat of May, India won a three-nation final at Eden in 1998 beating Kenya by nine wickets riding on Venkatesh Prasad’s 4/23 and a three-for by current chair of selectors Ajit Agarkar before Tendulkar scored 100, off 103 balls. But they were not in the house for three finals it hosted before and after.
The 1987 World Cup final was hyped as an India-Pakistan showdown but was played by England and Australia instead. Pakistan made the title-round in the 1989 MRF World Series for the Nehru Cup but it was the West Indies they beat in a thriller by four wickets. And by the time the 2016 World T20 final came around, India had been knocked out by eventual champions West Indies.
The 2023 World Cup semi-final here was between South Africa and Australia. Eden was disgraced the only time it hosted a 50-over World Cup semi-final before that. As the ball hissed and snaked, Azharuddin’s men chasing 252 collapsed from 98/1, when Tendulkar was out stumped, to 120/8. The stands erupted in anger leading to India having to forfeit the match, the only one in the history of World Cups, due to crowd trouble. In his book “Eden Gardens: Legend and Romance”, Raju Mukherji has called this venue “a monument of cricket heritage.” That night it was anything but.
