Dilip Narayan Sardesai

Born August 8, 1940, Margao, Goa
Died July 2, 2007 , Mumbai (aged 66 years 328 days)
Current age 66 years 171 days
Major teams : India, Mumbai
Batting style : Right-hand bat
Bowling style : Right-arm bowler

Batting and fielding averages

class	mat	inns	no	runs	hs	ave	100	50	6s	ct	st
Tests	30	55	4	2001	212	39.23	5	9	2	4	0
First-class	179	271	26	10230	222	41.75	25	56		85	0

Bowling averages

class	mat	balls	runs	wkts	bbi	bbm	ave	econ	sr	4	5	10
Tests	30	59	45	0	-	-	-	4.57	-	0	0	0
First-class	179	791	552	8	2/15		69.00	4.18	98.87		0	0

Career statistics
Test debut	India v England at Kanpur - Dec 1-6, 1961 scorecard
Last Test	India v England at Delhi - Dec 20-25, 1972 scorecard
First-class span	1960/61 - 1972/73

The 1970-71 West Indies tour was the last chance for Dilip Sardesai. He was lucky to be picked - it had looked as if his career was dead and buried - he went on to be Indian cricket's Renaissance Man in the watershed year of 1971. A technically correct player, the solid, wristy Sardesai was proficient against spin, but in West Indies he showed his mettle against pace, and pulled India repeatedly out of quicksand. He scored 642 runs, with two single hundreds and a double, and provided an inspirational launching-pad for a legend - Sunil Gavaskar, in his first series. In England later in 1971, Sardesai's pivotal double of 54 and 40 allowed Chandrasekhar to hasten England's defeat at The Oval. Sardesai was limpet-like and usually defensive, but he could attack when he needed to, and scored one of India's fastest hundreds, against New Zealand at Delhi in 1964-65. In the previous Test, his 200 not out at Bombay salvaged a draw after India had been skittled for 88 in the innings. Sardesai enjoyed playing against England: he made his Test debut against them in 1961-62, even before he'd played for Bombay, and it was against England, at Kanpur two years later, that he scored 79 and, after India followed on, 87 to help save the game.
H Natarajan

Cricinfo Profile can be viewed here
Interview with Vinayak Naik here
More links 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13