There are some disciplines in cricket, which don't get desired respect. Fielding wasn't considered an integral part of the game, until Jonty arrived. Joffrey Boycott used to rest in the pavilion, after batting. How many of us consider left arm orthodox or left arm spin as an art? When we talk about greatest spinners, apart from Bishan Singh Bedi, do we discuss any other left arm spinner?
Herath and Vettori took 400+ wickets, but still off/leg spinners who took way less wickets than them are considered better than them. That's unfair.
This story's protagonist is one such forgotten left arm spinner. Mumbai/Bombay is the most successful domestic team in the history of Indian cricket. Their streak of 15 consecutive Ranji trophy titles(1958-59 to 1972-73) is an incredible feat. In a way, they were the invincibles. Although the streak ended in 1972-73, the supremacy was far from over. They continued to dominate till the early 2000s.
However, in the 70s and 80s, the cricketing powerhouse was shifting to a new place. The Indian team wasn't a monopoly of Bombay anymore. Their neighbouring state Karnataka was making inroads and producing champion cricketers. Karnataka won their first Ranji trophy in 1973-74 and never looked back.
This story is about the 1981/82 Ranji semifinal, when a fairly unknown commodity flabbergasted an unstoppable force. Raghuram Bhat made his debut for Karnataka in 1979-80, but he came into his own a year later. So let's go back to the Chinnaswamy when the formidable Bombay team comprising of future legends like Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Patil, Parker, Shastri etc collided with Randy Orton aka the "legend killer".
Bombay batted first and crawled their way to 271, inspite of getting a good start, courtesy an 8-fer from Raghuram Bhat. He got Gavaskar and took a hatrick. But this isn't the story.
Karnataka demolished the Bombay bowling and ended up with 470, with Bhatt starring with the willow as well.
By the time Bombay started the second innings, the pitch had started turning square and Bhat was licking his lips. From the first ball, he was beating the batsmen by miles. Gavaskar never looked that helpless/pissed ever. He saw his team falling like a pack of cards, from the pavilion. For the first time in his life, he walked in to bat at number seven. Yes, you read that right.
Having observed the havoc wreaked by Bhat from the pavilion, he tried to fight fire with fire, but was failing miserably. All at sea, an idea struck- he decided to bat "left handed" to negotiate Bhat's left arm spin. He managed to scored a meagre 18 runs, but remained unbeaten and the match ended in a draw. However, Karnataka was declared the winner on the basis of first innings lead. Bhat ended up with 13 wickets in the match.
If you ask a Gavaskar fan, he will tell you that he never struggled this bad, even when he was facing the West Indian fast bowlers, without a helmet.
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