Bishan Singh Bedi – The mystery man who once left Australia reeling in Perth

One of the brightest stars in Indian cricket of the 70s, former Indian cricket legend Bishan Singh Bedi left us for the heavenly abode at the age of 77. His passing away invoked countless memories of the wee days of Indian cricket starting to take those massive leaps of faith away from home, even though the joys were limited.

One of the finest left-arm spinners to have graced the sport, Bishan Singh Bedi represented India in 67 Test matches and 10 ODIs between 1967 to 1979. At the time of his retirement, he was India’s highest wicket-taker in Test matches with 266 scalps at an average of 28.71. He was a prized part of the hallowed quartet comprising the likes of Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivasan Venkataraghavan and himself.

As the nation mourns the loss of one of its historic cricket figures, here’s a deep dive into one of his heroic spells that saw him knitting together an undoable web around Australia in Perth even though the hosts managed to walk out barely with the bruises to show for.

India was touring Australia in 1977 and the might of the Aussies was too much to parallel back then. In the second Test of the series, India won the toss and opted to bat first. Riding high on the heroics of Chetan Chauhan (88), Mohinder Amarnath (90), Dilip Vengsarkar (49) and Madan Lal (43), India posted 402 on the board.

However, the Australians were not a side that would easily cower down to pressure as their captain back then, Bob Simpson (176) laced with John Dyson (53) and Steve Rixon (50) catapulted the Aussies within touching distance of the Indian total with 394 runs for the first innings.

Things could have gotten way out of their hands if it was not for Bishan Singh Bedi. The icon’s first scalp of the day was David Ogilvie, as he could barely realize the turn with the ball sneaking through his famed defences to clatter onto his timbre. Peter Toohey failed to open his account despite facing 13 balls as Bedi’s flighted delivery was too luring for the former to come down the track and eventually, he missed the line of the ball. Syed Kirmani pulled off a decent piece of work behind the stumps.

John Dyson’s gritty half-century up top met an abrupt end as Bedi produced an all-important mishit with Brijesh Patel claiming a sitter, imparting the latter his third of the innings. Just when it was felt that Kim Hughes could pose a serious threat to the Indian total, Bedi came back to remove him with Brijesh Patel producing another important wicket while he finished his first innings heroics with the final scalp of Tony Mann.

Despite a strong display with the bat in the second innings, the Indian batters failed to get going in the same momentum in the second. However, a couple of centuries from Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath allowed India to post 330 on the scorecard.

Considering the kind of firepower that Australia came to the game with, it was imperative that India claimed wickets at the start. Bedi produced the all-important wicket of John Dyson early before Australia could get into revamp mode.

Things looked ominous for the Indians with Tony Mann and David Ogilvie steering the Aussie ship ashore comfortably. It was Bedi once again to produce the all-important breakthrough as he claimed the Tony Mann first and then a few moments later he picked Ogilvie too.

Despite the infringements, Peter Toohey and Bob Simpson successfully stabilized the ship and helped Australia shake off those engine room fears. At the dying end of the innings when it felt that Australia would coast home making a statement, Bedi turned the game slightly with two consecutive scalps of Peter Toohey first and then Steve Rixon, reducing Australia to 330/8. India may have lost the game for sure but Bishan Singh Bedi told the world that day that the Indian cricket team was a giant waiting to be awakened.

 Rest in Peace, Bishan Singh Bedi. The cricketing world will always remember you.