Vinoo Mankad played in 44 tests for India and is well known for record opening stand and his bowling records as well as instrumenting the term ‘Mankading‘ in cricket.
Test Career
Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad ( 12 April 1917 – 21 August 1978), popularly known as Vinoo Mankad played as an right-hand opening batsmen and a slow left arm orthodox spinner for India. He played in 44 tests for India scoring 2000+ runs (5 centuries) and taking 162 wickets in his test career
Test Batting Stat
| Tests | Innings | Runs | Hundred | Fifty | Top Score | Avg /Inn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 73 | 2109 | 5 | 6 | 231 | 31.01 |
Test Bowling Stat
| Tests | Innings | Wickets | SR | Avg | BBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 70 | 162 | 88.51 | 32.32 | 8/55 |
Record Opening Partnership
He was involved in a record setting opening partnership of 413 runs with opener Pankaj Roy. He scored 231 runs in this partnership against New Zealand in 1956 at Chennai – the opening record of 413 runs stood for 52 years before being broken by another legend Sunil Gavaskar.
Memorable Moments
Vinoo Mankad was the first Indian to score a century and take five wickets in the same test. In 1952, playing in Madras (now Chennai), he took 8/55 in the first innings and 4/53 in the second innings to help Indian beat England for the first time in a Test match.
‘Mankading’ Controversy
Mankad’s controversy came in 1947/48 tour of Australia, when he ‘ran out’ Bill Brown in the second test. Mankad, during his delivery stride, paused in his run up and while Brown was out of the crease, broke the wickets. Though this act of run out is still legal in the cricketing books – it is considered against the spirit of the game. This was a sour patch and the Aussie press coined the term ‘Mankading’ and this has struck ever since.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why [the press] questioned his sportsmanship. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not, why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early, the non-striker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage.
Sir Donald Bradman has defended Mankad’s action and quoted this in his autobiography
Honours
- Vinoo Mankad’s name appears in both the bowling and batting honors list at Lords – one of the three non-English ‘away’ players to have this honour.
- He received the Padhma Bhushan award in 1973.
- There is a road which is named in honour of him outside the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
- Vinoo Mankad Trophy is a Under-19 limited overs competition for the state teams and is named after him.
Posts in Cricket
India vs New Zealand Test: Time to Revisit Overseas Batting Troubles After Beaten Comprehensively by NZ
India vs Australia T20, ODI and Test Series Complete Schedule
