It is now time to give attention to the Bowlers now and who better to start with than with probably one of the best spinners that India has ever seen in Bishan Singh Bedi. He was one of the first spinners from India who made such a mark in test cricket history and he played by his own rules and nobody could tell him what to do and all that. He was his own man and this led to few arguments and differences during their playing days and he was in a war with the board as well demanding more payment for the players. He was a role model to those who were free spirited and played cricket their own way.
If left arm spin bowling was the art then Bishan Singh Bedi was the Picasso of it as he was the best artist of the left arm spin at the time. All the batters would be afraid of how much turn he would get when he bowls and he used to get the batters out mostly by bowled or LBW. I have never seen any of his but I have heard from a lot of modern left arm spinners that he mentored them. So, let’s see the Top 5 Best Bishan Singh Bedi bowling performances.
6/127 vs New Zealand (1968)
The first performance that we will talk about here is the 6 wicket haul that he took vs New Zealand in their own backyard in 1968. New Zealand were batting first in this test match and it looked like one way traffic for the most part but it was the genius of Bishan Singh Bedi that brought India back in the game as he kept picking up Wickets St regular intervals and never allowed the score to cross 550 or 600 which would have been a disaster but due to his special bowling effort New Zealand could only make just over 500 runs.
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6/42 vs New Zealand (1969)
Just one year before he took a 6 wicket haul in New Zealand but India lost that test match but no worries he took the revenge for that loss in the best way he knew how. When New Zealand came to India to tour for a test series Bishan Singh Bedi bowled even better than the first time he faced them and this time this performance came in the most crucial 4th innings of the test match age New Zealand were bowled out for just 127 in the last innings and India won that test match by 60 Runs and no one was happier than the hero Bedi.
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7/98 vs Australia (1969)
It looks like the year 1969 was very kind to Bishan Singh Bedi as he was on a roll that year and the team he faced did not matter. First it was New Zealand with a 6 wicket haul and now he bettered his performance against the strong Australia team at the iconic Eden Gardens and over 100,000 fans were loving every minute of this exhibition of spin bowling from the wizard. India were bowled Out cheaply in the first innings but Bedi answered back for India and did not allow Australia to get away with the match. However , India lost this test match but it doesn’t diminish the performance by him.
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5/82 vs West Indies (1976)
After talking about his performances in the 2960s it is now time to change the decade and more into the later half of 1970s and the year was 1976 and the hero for India was once again the great Bishan Singh Bedi and this time it was in the backyard of the West Indies team which had all the greatest batrers ever. Only Vivian Richards scored a hundred because why wouldn’t he but Bishan Singh Bedi did not allow any other West Indies batter to get set and get a big score and despite the brilliance of Viv Richards, Undu got West Indies out for 241. The match was drawn but this legendary performance by Bedi is still fondly remembered.
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4/38 vs England (1973)
The last performance we will talk about is this performance that he gave vs England in 1973. England were a favorite opponent of India at that time because not too long ago they ruled over India and this was a chance for Bedi to show the English that never take a fight vs India and in the second innings of England batting it was Bedi who bamboozled the English batters and they had no clue how to play him and as a result he took 4 wickets and only gave away 38 runs in the process. A performer par excellence he was and it has been a pleasure writing about him.
