Polly Umrigar was one of the early superstars of Indian cricket along with greats like Vinoo Mankad and Lala Amarnath. At the time of his retirement, he held the records for the highest Test matches, most runs and most centuries for India. On 20th November 1955, Umrigar reached an unknown territory where no other Indian cricketer has reached. It was India’s first Test match ever against New Zealand and the venue was the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium at Hyderabad.
Lala Amarnath scored the first-ever Test century for India in 1933 against the touring England team in the first-ever Test match on Indian soil. For the next 22 years, there were quite a few memorable hundreds by the Indian legends like Vijay Hazare and Vijay Merchant but none of them could cross the 200 run barrier in Test match cricket. Umrigar made his debut in 1948 against West Indies and scored his first Test hundred in India’s first-ever Test win against England in 1952. By 1955, he was already an established player in the team with five Test centuries in his bag.
In 1955, the first Test started on 19th November. India won the toss and decided to bat. There was an early blow as Pankaj Roy was dismissed for a duck. Umrigar came to bat with the total on 1/1 and joined Mankad. The experienced duo added 47 runs before Mankad was out for 30. Umrigar was joined by another Mumbai player Vijay Manjarekar and both of them started to bat with confidence and none of the Kiwi bowlers could create any threat for them. By the end of day one, the partnership was unbeaten on 202 runs as India reached 250/2. Both Umrigar and Manjarekar reached their hundreds and were batting on 112 and 102 respectively.
On day two, Manjarekar was dismissed early for 118 Johnny Hayes his second wicket. The young debutant AG Kripal Singh joined Umrigar who was batting beautifully. The Manjarekar wicket did not break his concentration and once Kripal Singh was also set, the runs started to come free again. Indian total went past 300, then 350 and soon 400. Umrigar was gradually moving towards his double hundred and finally reached the milestone. It was the first-ever Test double hundred by an Indian and deservingly a great moment for Polly Umrigar. Umrigar finally scored 223 before being scalped by Hayes. Kripal Singh reached a
wonderful debut hundred before India declared for 498.
Although India was able to make New Zealand follow on finally the Test was ended in a draw but it remains a special Test match for Polly Umrigar and memorable for Indian cricket fans of that era.
