Chandrasekhar Trimbak Sarwate (; 22 July 1920 – 23 December 2003) was an Indian

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 and

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfa ...

expert. He was an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

who played nine Test matches for

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

between 1946 and 1951 with no success — his Test

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average i ...

was only 13.00, and his Test

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

was 124.66. He bowled slow leg breaks.

Career

Sarwate had a long career in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

, spanning 32 years, during which he represented

Central Provinces and Berar The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India and later the Dominion of India which existed from 1903 to 1950. It was formed by the merger of the Central Provinces with the province of Berar, which was territory leased by the ...

, Maharashtra,

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

Holkar The Holkar (Pronunciation: �o(ː)ɭkəɾ dynasty was a Maratha clan of Dhangar origin in India. The Holkars were generals under Peshwa Baji Rao I, and later became Maharajas of Indore in Central India as an independent member of the Mar ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital city, capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar, and Rewa, India, Rewa being the othe ...

and

Vidarbha Vidarbha (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the east of the Indian state of Maharashtra and a Proposed states and union territories of India#Maharashtra, proposed state of central India, comprising th ...

. Sarwate's most famous innings as a batsman came while playing for the touring Indian side against Surrey at

the Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

in May 1946. Coming in to bat after his team was down 205/9, Shute Banerjee and he put on 249 for the last wicket, more runs than the first nine wickets put together. Both players went on to score

centuries A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

, and as of 2018, it remains the only such instance in first-class cricket. Their 249-run stand remains the highest partnership in first-class cricket between number ten and eleven batsmen. Sarwate remained unbeaten at 124. He returned figures of 5/54 with the ball before opening the second innings for the Indians. They went on to win the match by nine wickets. Sarwate's highest first-class score was 246 for Holkar against

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

in 1951, and his best bowling in an innings was 9 for 61 for

against

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

in 1946. His overall batting average in first-class cricket was 32.73, and his bowling average was 23.54. Sarwate was a national selector for three years in the early 1980s, and was one of the selectors who picked the Indian team that won the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in England in 1983. Besides being the secretary of Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, he was also the chairman of its selection committee on number of occasions. Sarwate held degrees in arts and law and was a fingerprint expert by profession.

References

External links

*
Transcript of interview with Chandu Sarwate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarwate, Chandu Indian cricketers India Test cricketers Mumbai cricketers Madhya Pradesh cricketers Maharashtra cricketers Vidarbha cricketers Madhya Bharat cricketers Holkar cricketers Hindus cricketers Central Zone cricketers East Zone cricketers India national cricket team selectors 1920 births 2003 deaths People from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh