da bet7： For long under the shadow of his illustrious brother CK – elderto him by 19 years – Cottari Subbana Nayudu established himselfas one of the prominent players in first-class cricket in thecountry in the thirties and forties on the strength of his
Partab Ramchand23-Nov-2002For long under the shadow of his illustrious brother CK – elderto him by 19 years – Cottari Subbana Nayudu established himselfas one of the prominent players in first-class cricket in thecountry in the thirties and forties on the strength of his allround capabilities.
A glutton for work, Nayudu loved bowling long spells and somehowit seems fitting that he holds the world record of sending downmost number of deliveries in a first-class game. In the RanjiTrophy final against Bombay in 1944-45, Nayudu bowled 152.5 overs(917 balls), a unique feat of endurance. His two spells are worthrecording for posterity 64.5-10-153-6 and 88-15-275-5. At leasthe was rewarded with 11 wickets for his toil even if Bombay wonthe match.
As a leg-spin googly bowler Nayudu was in a class of his own.This is reinforced by the fact that he took 295 wickets in theRanji Trophy, a record that stood for over a decade till anotherleg-spinner VV Kumar surpassed it in 1970. A big spinner of theball, Nayudu was an attacking bowler illustrated both by hisaverage (23.49) and by the fact that he needed just 56 matches toreach the mark. It must not be forgotten that Nayudu was also avery capable late-order batsman who scored 2575 runs at anaverage of 30.20 in a quarter century long career in the nationalchampionship.A tower of strength to various teams in the Ranji Trophy, Nayudureserved his greatest feats for Holkar and was a key player ofthe princely state’s halycon period from 1944 to 1954. In elevenyears, Holkar failed to reach the final only once and Nayudu wasamong the cricketers responsible for this enviable record. Hetook 14 wickets in a match once and twice captured more than 30wickets in a season, a commendable feat given the fact that veryfew matches were played in the formative years of thecompetition. In 1942-43, Nayudu became the first bowler to take40 wickets in a season, a tremendous achievement considering thathe played only four matches.A glutton for work, Nayudu loved bowling long spells and somehowit seems fitting that he holds the world record of sending downmost number of deliveries in a first-class game. In the RanjiTrophy final against Bombay in 1944-45, Nayudu bowled 152.5 overs(917 balls), a unique feat of endurance. His two spells are worthrecording for posterity 64.5-10-153-6 and 88-15-275-5. At leasthe was rewarded with 11 wickets for his toil even if Bombay wonthe match.In a three-decade long first-class career that commenced withrepresenting the Hindus in the Quadrangular in the earlythirties, Nayudu scored 5786 runs at an average of 23.90 withfour hundreds while picking up 647 wickets at 26.54 apiece.It is against this impressive record that Nayudu’s Test figuresmake for rather bewildering reading. In 11 Test matches, hescored 147 runs at an average of 9.18 and picked up just twowickets at 179.50 apiece. It would be easy to dismiss him as oneof the many players who could not successfully make thetransition from first-class cricket to the international level.The point was that he was in and out of the side. He played twoTests against England in 1933-34 and was not picked for the 1936tour of England. Sent later to reinforce the side, he played twoTests.He toured England again in 1946, playing in two more Tests. Onthe 1947-48 tour of Australia he played in four Tests and thenwas brought back for one last fling against England at Kanpur in1951-52. Admittedly, in almost all the Tests, he had difficultyin maintaining control over line and length.But even in the midst of this mediocre record, Nayudu’s name isassociated with one storybook feat. This was in his debut Test atCalcutta. India following on 156 runs behind, were 149 for sixwhen Nayudu joined Dilawar Hussain. There were still nearly twohours left and the odds were heavily stacked against the hometeam saving the game. Nayudu held on firmly to score 15 out of aseventh wicket stand of 52 and by the time he had been dismissed,the clouds of defeat had evaporated. Just to prove that he couldalso play strokes, Nayudu’s runs were made up of a six, two foursand a single!By any yardstick, Nayudu was an unusual bowler and C Ramaswamiwho was his teammate on the 1936 tour has left us this vividportrait: “CS bent his body so low while delivering the ball thathis head was almost on a level with the top of the stumps. Hestretched his arm fully and threw his body weight into hisdelivery so that the ball came off the pitch very quickly. Healso spun the ball extremely well but unfortunately his lengthand direction were not always controlled. Probably because ofthis unpredictability CS got quite a number of wickets. Batsmendid not seem to know when CS was going to produce that unplayableball.”The apt description just about sums up Nayudu’s art and skill.