Osmania University’s tryst with Rohinton Baria Trophy in 1966-67

OU beat the mighty Bombay University by 172 runs

Hyderabad: Turning the pages of Hyderabad’s sporting history brings lovely memories and Osmania University winning their maiden Rohinton Baria Trophy in 1966-67 season is one of the interesting and exciting facets. For the record, OU beat the mighty Bombay University by 172 runs. Brief scores: Osmania 285 and 314 bt Bombay 122 and 305. The final was played at Nagpur on matting wicket.

The 16-member team: Abid Zainulabideen (captain), Sultan Saleem, Nagesh Hammond, Prakash Joshi, Ishaque Khader, Mumtaz Hussain, Kenia Jayantilal, P Krishnamurthy, Naushir Mehta, Prahalad, B Mohan, Khaja Nayeemuddin, Narender Patel, MD Jaisimha, Mujataba Ali Baig and Zahid Ali Khan. Ramulu (kit boy).

Jayantilal and Mehta went down the memory lane. “It is fresh in memory. We had a wonderful tournament and people remember the late Mumtaz Hussain for his mesmerising spells. He returned with 45 wickets or so,” said Jayantilal, who was the top run-getter with five centuries. Late Nagesh Hammond chipped in with three centuries.

According to Mehta, it was a total team effort. “Jayantilal and Nagesh did the bulk of scoring while there were other batsmen who came up with useful contributions with the willow. For instance in the final, when the middle order failed, Abid made 62, Krishnamurthy 43 while Mumtaz struck an unbeaten 46 coming at number 10. We could make 285 in the first innings.
“But it was primarily Mumtaz’s bowling, who was unplayable with his Chinaman deliveries. He took six wickets apiece in both the innings while I took three each in the final. After dismissing Mumbai for 122 in the first innings, we were reduced to 9 for 3 before Jayantilal and Nagesh put us on top with smashing centuries. Nagesh dazzled with his square and cover drives while Jayantilal excelled with his pulls and straight drives,” said Mehta, who had 35 wickets.

In fact, the final is remembered how Mumtaz plotted Sunil Gavaskar’s dismissal. “Most of the batsmen failed to read Mumtaz’s Chinaman. The particular delivery to dismiss Gavaskar in the second innings was a classic delivery. It was a perfectly bowled Chinaman that had a solid batsman like Gavaskar stranded and was stumped.

“We all remember Gavaskar saying to Ramesh Nagdev, ‘Don’t worry, Ramesh, I know when he bowls that one.’ But the next delivery, Mumtaz deceived Gavaskar with Chinaman,” added Jayantilal.

Mehta, who claimed Gavaskar’s wicket in the first innings, said the team was exceptionally led by Abid. “He kept his cool in tight situations and was a busy man in the field. He would always say kuch magic karo to Mumtaz whenever the wickets did not fall. Apart from his captaincy, he always made useful scores with the bat. In fact, we had batsman batting till No.11. We went into the tournament as rank outsiders with minimum kit. We won five successive matches to emerge champions.

“We beat Mysore in the final of the South Zone championship and in the all India championship, we upset hosts Nagpur. In the semifinals, we beat Delhi, which had nine Ranji players while we had one Ranji player in Saleem. In that particular match, Mumtaz bowled that Chinaman to clean up the in-form Michael Dalvi, who was dumb-founded by the delivery. Although Mumtaz and I took the bulk of the wickets, it was fast bowler Khaja Nayeemuddin who gave us the early breakthroughs.”

Jayantilal pointed out the biggest advantage was that all the matches were played on matting wickets. “We were all used to matting wickets. That benefited us. Team spirit was a big factor in our win. Do you know that we had a daily allowance of Rs 5. We used to do lot of masti and watch movies in the night. Like typical Hyderabadis most of them woke up at 9 but by 10 am we were on the field,” said Jayantilal.

Mehta said that sad part there were no rewards or reception on our return. “Even now there is no recognition for that historic win. In fact Nagesh and I were not in the South Zone team despite top performances.”

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