Motganhalli Laxminarsu Jaisimha (3 March 1939 – 6 July 1999) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Test

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er.

Playing career

Jaisimha was a right-handed batsman who was noted for his style on and off the field. He bowled medium pace, often opening the bowling for India, and off-breaks, and was a brilliant fielder. But it was the way he went about things that caught the eye.

Partab Ramchand Partab Ramchand is a veteran Indian sports journalist with wide experience in all modes of the profession – print, electronic (both TV and radio), and digital journalism. He started his career in June 1968 with ''The Indian Express'' (Madras) an ...

wrote after Jaisimha's death that "his slim figure, which he maintained till his last day, the boyish good looks, the inimitable gait, the trademark silk shirt and scarf, the sleeves buttoned at the wrist or the collar turned up – all these attracted immediate attention." '' Indian Cricket'' called him a "cultivated stylist". Jaisimha made his first-class debut at the age of 15, in the 1954–55 Ranji Trophy, scoring 90 for

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against

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, and taking three wickets for 51 runs. After two indifferent seasons, in 1958–59 he cracked hundreds against

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and

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, the premier teams in the South Zone. 20 wickets in

Ranji Colonel H. H. Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, (10 September 1872 – 2 April 1933), often known as Ranji or K. S. Ranjitsinhji, was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933, as M ...

matches in the same season found him a place in the side that toured England in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

Test career

Jaisimha's

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debut at

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was disastrous, but his next two Tests won him notice. In the final Test against

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in 1959–60 at

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, he went in to bat towards the end of the first day and finished on 20 not out on the second day. He started his second innings just before stumps on the third day, batted throughout the fourth scoring only 59 runs, and was out on the final day for 74. This made him the first batsman to bat on all five days of a Test match. At Kanpur against Pakistan a year later, he batted through a whole day for just 54 runs. This innings, which lasted 505 minutes for 99 runs, ironically ended when he attempted a quick single to complete his hundred. Meanwhile, he converted himself into an opener. While there was a bit of competition for the Indian middle order, Pankaj Roy was coming to the end of his career as an opener. In that position, Jaisimha scored Test hundreds against

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in 1961–62 and 1963–64, and 134 against Ceylon in 1964–65. In the 1963–64 series against England he made 444 runs. In 1964–65, he batted in the middle order for Hyderabad and hit 713 runs. But failures in the Test matches led to him being dropped. He was not part of the original team that toured

in 1967–68, but injuries to

Chandu Borde Chandrakant Gulabrao "Chandu" Borde (born 21 July 1934), is a former cricketer who was a member of the Indian team between 1958 and 1970. Following his retirement, Borde became a cricket administrator, serving as the Chairman of national selec ...

and

B.S. Chandrasekhar Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar (informally Chandra; born 17 May 1945) is an Indian former cricketer who played as a leg spinner. Considered among the top echelon of leg spinners, Chandrasekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi an ...

and the loss of form of others resulted in Jaisimha being flown in. He went straight into the Third Test and scored 74 and 101, nearly pulling off an improbable win. He never again exceeded 25 in Test cricket. Curiously, each of his three hundreds came in the third Tests of the respective series. His last series was the tour of West Indies in 1970–71. Captain

Ajit Wadekar Ajit Laxman Wadekar (; 1 April 1941 – 15 August 2018) was an Indian international cricketer who played for the Indian national team between 1966 and 1974. Described as an "aggressive batsman", Wadekar made his first-class debut in 1958, ...

wrote later that he found Jaisimha's counsel invaluable. In his last innings at

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he stayed for an hour scoring 23 and helping

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

save the match. He led Hyderabad for 16 seasons and 76 matches. The Indian captain

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Nawab Mohammad Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (also known as Mansur Ali Khan, or M. A. K. Pataudi; 5 January 1941 – 22 September 2011; nicknamed Tiger Pataudi) was an Indian cricketer and a former captain of the Indian cricket team. Pataudi was a ...

often played under his leadership.

Later life

Jaisimha was a selector between 1977–78 and 1980–81, and managed the Indian tour to Sri Lanka in 1985–86. MCC made him a life member in 1978. He was also a TV commentator for some time and did commentary for the

1987 Cricket World Cup The 1987 Cricket World Cup (officially known as the Reliance Cup 1987 for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth Cricket World Cup. It was held from 8 October to 8 November 1987 in India and Pakistan – the first such tournament to be held outside ...

. His sons Vivek Jaisimha and Vidyut Jaisimha were first-class cricketers. His death was due to lung cancer.

Notes

* Jaisimha's feat of batting on all five days has since been emulated by

Geoff Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

Kim Hughes Kimberley John Hughes (born 26 January 1954) is a former cricketer who played for Western Australia, Natal and Australia. He captained Australia in 28 Test matches between 1979 and 1984 before captaining a rebel Australian team in a tour ...

Allan Lamb Allan Joseph Lamb (born 20 June 1954) is a South African-born former English cricketer, who played for the first-class teams of Western Province and Northamptonshire. Making his Test debut in 1982, he was a fixture in the Test and One-Day Inter ...

Ravi Shastri Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri (born 27 May 1962) is the former head coach of the India national cricket team, a cricket commentator and former captain of Indian Cricket Team. As a player, he played for the India national cricket team between 19 ...

, Adrian Griffith,

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

Alviro Petersen Alviro Nathan Petersen (born 25 November 1980) is a former South African international cricketer who played domestic cricket in South Africa for the Highveld Lions and in England for Lancashire. A right-handed batsman, he has represented South Af ...

and

Cheteshwar Pujara Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara (born 25 January 1988) is an Indian international cricketer who plays Test cricket for India and represents Saurashtra in domestic cricket. He is a right-handed batter and is known for his disciplined batting style. ...

References

External links

*
"The Nawab of Hyderabad Cricket"

V Ramnarayan Venkatraman Ramnarayan (born 8 November 1947, in Madras) is a former Indian first-class cricketer and current journalist, editor, translator and teacher. Cricket career An off-spin bowler, Ramnarayan left his native Tamil Nadu and moved to Hy ...