Polly Umrigar: Difference between revisions

| birth_place      = [[Solapur]], [[Bombay Presidency]], [[British India]]  

'''Pahlan Ratanji''' "'''Polly'''" '''Umrigar''' {{audio|Polly Umrigar.ogg|pronunciation}} (28 March 1926 – 7 November 2006) was an Indian [[cricket]]er.  He played [[first-class cricket]] for Bombay and Gujarat, and [[Test cricket]] in the [[Indian cricket team]], mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowling occasional medium pace and [[off spin]]. He [[Indian national cricket captains|captain]]ed the Indian team in eight Test matches from 1955 to 1958. When he retired in 1962, he had played in more Tests (59), scored more Test runs (3,631), and recorded more Test centuries (12), than any other Indian player. He scored the first double century by an Indian in Test cricket against New Zealand in Hyderabad.

Polly Umrigar was probably born in [[Mumbai|Bombay]] but his place of birth is often cited as [[Solapur]], [[Maharashtra]] (see<ref name="pob">A majority of the references cite S(h)olapur as Umrigar's place of birth. But in the interview ''A chat with midwicket explorer'' in Sportstar, 14 October 1989, p.49, Umrigar said : "Let me correct the notion that I was born in Sholapur and not in Bombay. The fact is I was born in Bombay, but learnt my cricket in Sholapur till pre-metric days". Another dissenter is Richard Cashman, Patrons, Players and the Crowd, p.76 : "For years Polly Umrigar was listed as 'born in Sholapur' whereas it is now known that he was born in Bombay."</ref>). His father ran a clothing company. He grew up in Solapur and his family moved to Bombay when he was at school.

He was a [[Parsi people|Parsi]] (from the Zoroastrian community in India), the community that dominated [[Mumbai cricket team|Bombay cricket]] in the early decades of the twentieth century.<ref>Cashman, Patrons, Players and the Crowd, p.81. Of the early Test cricketers from Bombay, [[Dattaram Hindlekar]] and [[Janardan Navle]] were the only Marathi speakers. Others – [[Sorabji Colah]], [[Jenni Irani]], [[Rustomji Jamshedji]], [[Khershed Meherhomji]], [[Rusi Modi]], [[Phiroze Palia]], [[Vijay Merchant]], [[L. P. Jai]] and [[Buck Divecha|Ramesh Divecha]] –  were all Gujarati Parsees or Gujarati Hindus.</ref> He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the [[Bombay Pentangular]] in 1944, and studied for a BSc at [[St Xavier's College]].  He captained the Bombay University team. He also played hockey and football competitively.

==As a cricketer==

Umrigar's 560 runs in the 1952–53 series equalled [[Rusi Modi]]'s identical tally against West Indies at home in 1948–49. This stood as an Indian record till [[Vijay Manjrekar]] scored 586 runs against England in 1961–62, and the highest abroad till [[Dilip Sardesai]] and [[Sunil Gavaskar]] made 642 and 774 runs in West Indies in 1970–71.</ref> He reached his hundred at [[Queen's Park Oval|Port of Spain]] with a six off [[Sonny Ramadhin]].<ref>Umrigar was the first Indian batsman to reach a century with a six, a feat that has since been emulated by [[Kapil Dev]], [[Sachin Tendulkar]], [[Mohammad Azharuddin]], [[Rahul Dravid]] and [[Virender Sehwag]].</ref> His innings of 223 against [[New Zealand cricket team|New Zealand]] at [[Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium|Hyderabad]] in 1955–56 was the first double century scored for India.<ref>{{Cite web|date=28 March 2017|title=The first Indian to hit a double century: 'Polly' Umrigar was born on this day almost a century ago|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/polly-umrigar-first-indian-double-century-968094-2017-03-28|access-date=2020-09-24|website=India Today|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Full Scorecard of India vs New Zealand 1st Test 1955|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/17421/scorecard/62802/india-vs-new-zealand-1st-test-new-zealand-tour-of-india-1955-56|access-date=2020-09-24|website=espncricinfo.com|language=en}}</ref>

Umrigar's bowling improved over the course of his career. He bowled off-cutters, hardly flighted the ball and moved it in off the seam.<ref>Sujit Mukherjee, Playing for India, p.156</ref> Occasionally he used to bowl medium pace and open the bowling, as at Bahawalpur in 1954–55 when he took his career-best 6 for 74 against Pakistan. Umrigar rarely bowled for long spells at medium pace. At [[Bahawal Stadium|Bahawalpur]] he only bowled about six overs "at the maximum pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to [[Sujit Mukherjee]]. (See the article on [[Gulabrai Ramchand|G. S. Ramchand]] for Mukherjee's opinion about Ramchand's bowling.)

*[https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,1942811,00.html Obituary], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 9 November 2006