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Golden chase at Trinidad
Updated On: 12 April, 2026 10:03 AM IST | Mumbai | Clayton Murzello
Fifty years ago, Bishan Singh Bedi’s Indian team became only the second side in Test history to achieve a 400-plus run fourth innings target to stun Clive Lloyd’s West Indies at Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain
A 2007 image of the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad, where India chased their way to glory on April 12, 1976. Pic/mid-day archives, Suresh Karkera
After Don’s team, Bedi & Co
April 12, 1976, was a watershed moment in Indian cricket. India became only the second team to chase down a 400-plus victory target in a Test match after Don Bradman’s 1948 Invincible Australian team beat England at Leeds. Set a victory target of 403 runs by Clive Lloyd’s West Indies, Bishan Singh Bedi’s men combined ability with grit and gumption to provide another low blow to a team which, a massive victory in the opening Test at Barbados notwithstanding, were still carrying the scars of their 1-5 defeat in Australia earlier in the year.
Spin won’t win
What happened 50 years ago on this day in Trinidad was not only an incredible achievement for India. It also brought about a change in mindset for Clive Lloyd in his quest to usher in West Indies’s dominance of world cricket under him. Lloyd decided that only his best bowlers would make the cut on the team sheet and the need to use a spinner merely because of tradition, took a back seat. At Trinidad, West Indies played left-arm spinner Raphick Jumadeen, and debutants Albert Padmore (off-break) and local boy Imtiaz Ali (leg-break). Simply put, spin was not going to be major ammunition for Lloyd.
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