#4 Srinivas Venkataraghavan, 64 vs New Zealand at Chennai, 1976
Former Indian captain Srinivas Venkataraghavan is considered to be one of the best spinners India has ever produced and in his prime was regarded as one of the world’s best spinners. He helped India win several matches through his crafty off-break bowling. On a few occasions, he also chipped in with the bat and one such opportunity came in 1976 when New Zealand were touring India. After winning the first Test and drawing the second, India were set to win the series.
In the third Test match India won the toss and elected to bat first. They were off to the worst of starts when both openers Sunil Gavaskar and Anshuman Gaekwad got out with only three runs on the board. Gundappa Viswanath played a crucial knock of 87 and tried to stabilize the Indian batting with assistance from Mohinder Amarnath and Brijesh Patel.
Once he got out, India began to stumble and were 181/7 when Venkataraghavan came to bat with Syed Kirmani on the crease. Venkataraghavan played a very essential and sensible innings of 64 and along with Kirmani added 81 runs for the tenth wicket. Venkat’s innings comprised four boundaries and a six and helped India reach a total of 298 in the first innings.
Some crafty bowling by captain Bishan Singh Bedi and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar helped India win the match by 216 runs and the series 2-0.
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