Chandrasekhar's 6/38 at The Oval — India's First Series Win in England, 1971

The Wadekar regime — installed in early 1971 in place of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi — had already secured an unprecedented Caribbean series win when the team arrived in England for a three-Test rubber in July. England under Illingworth had regained the Ashes earlier in the year and were considered overwhelming favourites. The Indian batting was understood to be vulnerable in English conditions. The Indian advantage, as in the West Indies, lay in the spin trio — Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna — and the close catching cordon of Solkar, Wadekar, Venkataraghavan and Engineer.

The first two Tests had moved cautiously. Lord's was a rain-affected draw in which India's batting held up; Old Trafford was another draw, hampered by weather, in which India had been comfortably the better side on the playable days. The Oval, a traditionally dry pitch suited to spin in late August, was the match the Indian camp had circled.

England chose to bat first and made 355 over five sessions. The Indian bowling — Solkar's seam, the three spinners — gave little away after the first hour but lacked the vehicle for breakthroughs. Jameson and Richard Hutton put England in a strong position; only Solkar's first-innings run-out of John Snow on the second morning kept the lead to 71.

India's reply was solid rather than commanding. Chandrasekhar in the field looked unusually animated — Wadekar later said he had told the bowler before the second innings that the match would turn on him. Chandrasekhar's first over of the second innings was a maiden; his second produced Edrich's edge to Engineer.

India arrived at the Oval one-down in the three-Test series — the first two matches at Lord's and Old Trafford had been drawn. England, captained by Ray Illingworth, had won the toss and made 355 in their first innings, John Jameson top-scoring with 82. India responded with 284, with Eknath Solkar's 44, Farokh Engineer's 59 and Dilip Sardesai's 54 the principal contributions; the deficit was 71.

The match turned on the third afternoon. Chandrasekhar, the right-arm wrist-spinner whose withered bowling arm produced unusually quick googlies, opened from the Vauxhall End and ran through the England middle order. Conditions were dry but the surface offered turn and bounce. He had John Edrich caught behind for 0, Brian Luckhurst caught at slip, and bowled Basil D'Oliveira for 17. Ray Illingworth fell to Venkataraghavan; Alan Knott to Bedi. England were dismissed for 101 in a session and a half. India needed 173 to win.

The chase, on a worsening pitch, was tense. Wickets fell regularly — Gavaskar made 0, Mankad 11 — but Sardesai's 40 and Engineer's unbeaten 28 saw India home by four wickets on the fifth morning.

“I told Chandra before the second innings that the match would turn on him. He said yes, and went out and bowled the spell of his life.”

“I have never seen a bowler of his pace make a ball turn that much from outside off-stump. Chandrasekhar at the Oval was different from any leg-spinner I had faced.”

The reception in India was extraordinary. Wadekar's side returned to a state welcome at Bombay airport. Two away series wins in a single calendar year — the West Indies in March-April, England in July-August — was a transformation of national cricketing self-conception. The combination of Gavaskar's debut-series 774 in the Caribbean and Chandrasekhar's 6/38 at the Oval became the founding mythology of modern Indian cricket.

Chandrasekhar, who had been in and out of the Test side through the late 1960s, established himself as a permanent fixture. The 1971 Oval performance is generally identified as his finest in Test cricket, although he would later take 8/79 against England at Delhi in 1972-73 and remained a leading force until the late 1970s. He took 242 Test wickets in all, in 58 matches.