Winning a Test match in England proved an elephantine task for India’s cricketers. They were without a victory for 39 years when they started their seventh visit in the summer of 1971. Played 19, lost 15, won none.

Then they brought an elephant to the match and won.

The third Test at The Oval coincided with Ganesh Chaturthi, a Hindu festival to honour the elephant-headed god of good fortune and destroyer of obstacles. To mark the occasion, Indian supporters arranged to parade an elephant around the outfield during the lunch interval on the fourth day.

Bella, a three-year-old Asian elephant from Chessington Zoo in Surrey, took to the field wearing a white cap with the words “Chessington Zoo XI”. It proved a good omen. India bowled over the home side in the afternoon and went on to record their first victory in England.

It had been a mammoth effort. Rain and a Snow-storm hampered them in the first Test at Lord’s. England fast bowler John Snow barged into opener Sunil Gavaskar while he was attempting to run a single as India crept towards victory, only to finish 38 runs short of their 183-run target with two wickets in hand.

In the second Test at Old Trafford, England were struggling. John Lever joined Ray Illingworth with the first innings score on 187 for seven. Farokh Engineer, India’s wicketkeeper, remembers the occasion. “Lever was out caught behind when he was zero,” he says. “It was the thickest of edges right into my gloves. When the umpire gave him not out, I remember Lever turning around and winking at me. We knew each other well because we played for Lancashire together. I didn’t think much of it because I thought he wouldn’t last long anyway. The bugger went on to make 88. We should have won that game.”

Lever added 168 with Illingworth to help England recover, and the rain-marred game was drawn with the home side in control. Played 21, won none.

The teams went to The Oval in mid-August with the series up for grabs. England scored 355. Then it rained, preventing play on the second day and taking the bounce out of the pitch. In reply India were bowled out for 284, 71 runs behind.

Indian cricket, though, is blessed with quality spin bowlers. During this era they had four. Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Anatharao Srinivas Prasanna and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan were a mouthful for commentators and a handful for batsmen. They were known as the Four Musketeers. Between them they took 197 of the 244 wickets on the tour. Only Prasanna did not play in the Tests.

Chandrasekhar, a leg-spinner from southern India, enjoyed his finest hour on the fourth day. He had polio as a child, leaving his bowling arm withered, but he turned his deformity into an asset. With a longish run-up, he had a whirling fast-arm action that produced prodigious spin and wicked bounce.

“I have never been a bowler who planned things,” he says. “Most of the time I bowled whatever I felt like, without giving much importance to the conditions or who I was bowling to. I always believed that if I bowled well, I could trouble most batsmen. That afternoon everything fell into place.”

Chandrasekhar remembers his first wicket of England’s second innings with fondness. His teammates called his fast ball “Mill Reef” after the famous racehorse of the time. John Edrich was batting. Dilip Sardesai, standing in the close-in fielding cordon, called out for Chandrasekhar to bowl the Mill Reef.

“I had thought of bowling something else, but halfway through my run up I thought I might as well give it a try as he had asked. So I bowled the quicker one and Edrich’s bat was still in the air when the ball hit his middle stump.”

Engineer says Chandrasekhar is the best leg-spinner in India’s history. “He was the most destructive, and to keep wicket to him on the last day of a Test match when a ball pitched in the rough to a left-hander was wicketkeeping at its best. The ball spun ferociously at around 75mph. He was pretty quick. I had to keep my eyes wide open. On occasions he didn’t know himself which way the ball was going. That made it twice as difficult for the batsman and the poor wicketkeeper.

“Our only chance to get England out was to not allow them to score singles, so we placed a very attacking field around the bat. If they wanted to play their shots, they would have to hit it over the top.” The plan worked.

After young Bella’s timely visit at lunch, Chandrasekhar tore into England’s batting and finished the afternoon with six for 38 off 18.1 overs. England were dismissed for 101, leaving India needing 173 for victory.

By the close of the fourth day they were 97 runs away from history with eight wickets in hand. Victory was in sight.

However, it took the tourists three tense, exciting hours on a sticky pitch on the last day to reach their target. With four wickets remaining, Abid Ali top-edged a delivery over the slips for the winning runs. Engineer was not out at the other end, having scored 28 of the last 40 runs. “Those 28 I scored were like 128,” he says.

India took 101 overs to reach 174 and their happy supporters invaded the pitch in celebration. Played 22, won one.

“India was a colony of England, and to beat your masters at their own game was a bit of a feather in the cap,” says Engineer. “Any victory in a Test series was joyous, but to beat England in England was a phenomenal feat at the time for us Indians.”

The team returned home as heroes, having won series in England and the West Indies within six months. A vintage motorcade took them down Bombay’s Marine Drive on a ticker-tape parade. “We went from the airport to Brabourne stadium,” Chandrasekhar recalls, “and some of those cheers still echo inside my head even today.”

Engineer missed the parade. He had to go to Manchester to play in a County Championship game for Lancashire at Old Trafford. “When I went out to bat, I got a standing ovation from the crowd, and they were all English people,” he says. “It was great sportsmanship. I had just stuffed the country the day before and here they were, giving me a standing ovation.” He is now a Lancashire vice- president and lives in Cheshire.

Although Engineer still supports India, he has a soft spot for England and is in favour of the Asian influence in the national team. “Asians love their cricket and in 25 years there will be three Patels and two Shahs in the England side, but no Engineers. I have only daughters.”

Bella was born in the wild in 1968. Chessington Zoo bought her from the Tyseley Pet Store in Birmingham in May 1970. She lived at the zoo with an elephant called Marge, but died on May 30, 1990. It was not a good omen. Two months later Graham Gooch scored 333 against India at Lord’s.

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