The Hundred That Announced the Arrival of Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev’s unbeaten 126 against West Indies in Delhi in 1979 was the innings that established him as a genuine all-rounder and announced his arrival in Test cricket.

Kapil Dev (Image Source: Google)

One of those who didn't play T20 cricket, although could have been a success story, is none other than our Kapil Dev. It would be better if we say T20 cricket missed watching him. There is another reason also to remember Kapil Dev at present.

One of the saving graces for England in the recent Ashes series was the hundred Jacob Bethell scored at SCG. The best stat related to his hundred is that he became the 47th player to make a maiden first class hundred in a Test match. In September last year, he made a maiden professional century in an ODI against South Africa.

The first player to record the feat of scoring a maiden first class hundred in a Test match was Charles Bannerman in 1877.

* Jacob Bethell is the 6th England player to score a maiden first-class century in a Test match. Henry Wood in 1891/92; Billy Griffiths in 1947/48; Jack Russell in 1989; Stuart Broad in 2010; Gus Atkinson in 2024 were the others.

*Jacob Bethell at 22y-76d is one of the youngest to record the feat.

This feat has a unique parallel also. The Zimbabwe off spinner Ujesh Ranchod took his first, first-class wicket in a Test match(of Sachin Tendulkar) and this remained his only Test wicket.

Indian cricketers have fair representation in the club of batsmen scoring a maiden first class hundred in a Test match. Both Kapil Dev and Hardik Pandya are also in the list. Hardik’s first Test hundred (108 against Sri Lanka, Pallekele, August 2017) was not only his first, first class hundred, it was his first in any senior competitive cricket. Hardik has not scored another Test hundred since then.

Like scoring maiden first-class hundred in a Test, Jacob scored his first List A century in a one-day international. So he opened the account of his hundreds in both the formats in international matches. Four other players have also recorded this unusual feat and this includes our own Kapil paji. Kapil Dev:

*Scored 126* against West Indies in Delhi in January 1979. This was his first, first-class hundred also.

*Scored 175* against Zimbabwe in Tunbridge Wells in June 1983. This was his first, List A hundred also.The other three to record the feat are:

*Mehidy Hasan Miraz of Bangladesh, scored 103 in a Test against West Indies in Chattogram in February 2021, and 100* against India in an ODI in Mirpur in December 2022,

*Curtis Campher of Ireland made 111 in a Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in April 2023, and scored 120 in an ODI against Scotland in Bulawayo in the same year.

*Marlon Samuels of West Indies, made 104 in a Test against India in Kolkata in October 2002, and made 108 not out in an ODI, also against India, in Vijayawada a month later.

While a lot has been written about Kapil Dev’s famous 175* score in the World Cup 1983, not much is written about his first Test hundred (126* against West Indies in Delhi in January 1979) although in a true sense this was the innings which announced the ‘arrival’ of Kapil Dev. He picked this as his one of the finest performances in Test cricket.

He said: ‘I scored a Test century before I got a five-for but then the pitches in the subcontinent are more suited to batsmen. Test cricket was new to me – my debut was the first Test I saw – so it took me time to understand how to bowl and take wickets. That hundred was very sweet because I was established that day. People started saying, ‘He’s an all-rounder, he can bat’, and that helps you stay in the team. You think, ‘I can contribute with the bat, so I can bowl with some extra pace and try a thing or two.’

India won the toss and elected to bat first. On a flat, typical Sita Ram made pitch, India batted two full days and three quarters of an hour on the third to accumulate 566 for eight (their highest against any country at that time). In contrast to laborious hundreds (at certain times painful to watch also) by Gavaskar (who took almost six hours to score his 120) and Vengsarkar (playing for his survival after a pair in the previous Test almost matched his skipper and took five and a half hour to score 109), Kapil scored 126* off 124 balls with 11 fours and one six. India paid heavily for this overall slow scoring (RR 3.97) as rain on the fourth and the fifth day came to West Indies' rescue.

For Kapil this hundred was nothing short of an announcement. He didn’t bat like someone being intimidated and it broke a mental barrier. He was 94* overnight on day 2, and reached his 100 in the first over on the next morning with a 4 followed by a 6. He became the first cricketer to complete his first century in Test cricket by hitting a six.