Quote Originally Posted by Prabhu Ram
We got trampled in the second innings and SA reached a well deserving victory. But that one innings by Kapil made the whole thing so memorable. Heroic, no other words for it. Prevented us from an innings defeat to a country which was just returning to Test match cricket and was - for all practical purposes a newbie.
domestic cricket in SA is very good like in australia and intesity wise they are on par with test cricket. So, you can't call them a newbie.
For ex, Michael Hussey made his test debut only recently but he is a veteran in their domestic cricket. No wonder he made a big impression in test cricket and is called Mr. Cricket.

Quote Originally Posted by Prabhu Ram
There was no live telecast of those matches (DD used to telecast domestic tests live). Even the highlights would come in the next day night. Test matches used to have draw of stumps score-reports in the papers but you have to wait the whole day to watch the action on TV. It was worth the wait.

Everyone talks about Atheron duellin with Donald to save the day. When rewatching this innings on TV a few years back I see this is an equally good innings and Donald was attacking quite fiercely. But Kapil just battled it out without getting defensive. I think even that lone six was off Donald !! Kapil btw was aming the first who hit Donald - who was a sensation when he made his debut- for a six : that was in the world cup 92 match.

While I did not see his best, I could clearly see why my older cousins and uncles held Kapil in such high esteem.
If you are talking about the test match in port elizabeth, Kapil hit a six of one criag mathews( i am sure its not Donald ) to the upper tier in the stands near the press box and later seems to have told that he didn't quite get the timing right.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/stat...tch/63588.html

Other memories of Kapil Dev,
In the lord's test match against england in 1990, India needed 24 to avoid avoid follow on with just hirwani at the other end.
When eddie hemmings ( the same guy who tooks kapil's wicket in the world cup semifinal in 1987) bowled the over, kapil hit 4 consecutive sixes. Though, we avoided follow on, we lost the test match.

( In this match Graham Gooch scored a 300+ in the first innings, i think he was dropped on zero. he made a 100+ in the 2nd innings, He holds a record for most run by a batsman in a test match. )

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/stat...tch/63534.html


scored a brilliant century in the first innings in the tied match against australia.
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/stat...tch/63438.html

Kapil took 5 wickets in the second innings to script a famous victory against australia in melboure in 1981. The match saw ugly spat between dennis lille and sunny and sunny almost walked off.

http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/stat...tch/63281.html

under kapil's captaincy, the victory against pakistan in a low scoring ODI and defeat against pakistan with javed miandad hitting chetan sharma for a six cannot be forgotten so easily.

The icing on the cake is the 1983 prudentail cup win and Kapil's innings of 175 not out against zimbabwe which was a world record score at that time. We won the 1985 champion of champions too with kapil playing along with vengsarkar played a memorable innings against the kiwis. We were undisputable kings of ODI from 1983 to 1987 till australia took over. We were the hot favourites to win the 1987 world cup and everyone was expecting a india - pakistan final in eden gardens. We were cruising along till england hit us in the semis in mumbai. pakistan too lost to australia.

The legend has never missed a match due to fitness .

To sum up, Kapil Dev is the greatest all rounder that India has ever seen.

P.S. Opposition batsmen must've started wearing helmets against india only after Kapil Dev's debut.