NEW DELHI: The ball never reached the boundary. Someone in the crowd of boisterous Indians, who had paraded an elephant on the ground in hope earlier in the day, would have pocketed it before it struck the board at the Oval. That match winning square cut, essayed on the backfoot a little bent, sparked euphoric celebrations on the ground and became a pin-up moment in India's sporting history for a generation of cricket lovers.
England, the colonial masters who had taught the game to the 'natives', had been vanquished for the first time in their own home, creating a series win for the 1971 Ajit Wadekar-led side.
