India`s first Test series win came against such a country that is one of its neighbours and also is always considered as the archrivals of India. The team is Pakistan and India got the win in the very first series that it played against Pakistan in the year of 1952. The series was the last series for the legendary Indian cricketer, Lala Amarnath and the players of both the Indian and Pakistan teams were well determined to show a wonderful performance in the series. However, eventually, the Indian team was proved to be better than the Pakistan team and won the four match series by 2-1, winning the first and third match of the series.
The Indian team started its first series against Pakistan on a very positive note, as it won the first Test by a huge margin in New Delhi. One of the greatest all-rounders of India, Vinoo Mankad was the key player in India`s victory over Pakistan in the first Test, as he took a number of 13 wickets, including the figures like 8-52 in the first innings and 5-79 in the second. However, the Pakistani team made a great come back in the second Test and made the Indian team look ordinary, with some great performances from the Pakistani players like Fazal Mahmood and Nazar Mohammed. Nazar`s wonderful century and Fazal`s brilliant bowling helped Pakistan top win the second Test and level the series 1-1, before meeting India in Bombay, for the third Test.
However, the Indian team was looking to be quite determined in getting the first ever Test series win in their history and they started the third Test in a great way. The Test was held from 13-16th November 1952 and Pakistan batted first in the Test. The Indian bowling side, led by Vinoo Mankad and Lala Amarnath did a great job to restrict the first innings of Pakistan to only 186 runs. The Indian batsmen performed very well in their first innings and the great batsmen like, Vijay Hazare and Polly Umrigar were the stars for India, as both of them scored their individual centuries in the innings. Hazare remained unbeaten on 146 runs and Umrigar played an innings of 102 runs, before Amarnath declared the innings on a score of 387-4.
Lagging behind by a huge 201 runs to India, the Pakistan team could not get a good start in their second innings as well, and as Mankad and Subhash Gupte excelled with ball, Pakistan`s second innings were wrapped up for only 242 runs. Mankad got a figure of 5-72 in Pakistan`s second innings and Gupte took 3 wickets for 77 runs. Chasing a target of 42 runs, the Indian team did not face any difficulty at all and as Mankad was in a fiery mood and scored a briskly 35 runs, India won the Test by a huge margin of 10 wickets. The fourth and final Test of the series ended in a draw and thus, India won the Test series against Pakistan by 2-1 to achieve the first Test series win in its history. It was really one of the most memorable series for India, because it tasted a series victory over Pakistan, for the first time in its cricketing history.
